Though not exactly the Gettysburg Address, the crowd goes wild over the brief and gutsy oration. Taylor couldn’t be more pleased. “Talk about expressive—let nobody dampen that beautiful spirit! Twelve [or] thirteen is the age when suddenly you’re being told that you need to be a certain way to be a woman, and that [way] isn’t vocal and it isn’t assertive, and we’re trying to change that.”

WriteGirl also does its best to empower women beyond the written word. When 15-year-old Allie told Associate Director of WriteGirl, Allison Deegan, that one day she wanted to become something women couldn’t be, Deegan assumed she wanted to become a player for the Lakers. But Allie had a strong desire to become a curator for a museum, and an equally strong belief that only one woman in a million could be one. To prove her wrong, Deegan made a few phone calls and convinced the female curator of the Norton Simon museum to talk to Allie about her career choice.

“I saw an exhibit before it opened, they talked to me and gave me all this stuff,” says Allie of the experience. “It was amazing!”