For others, the idea of lesbian music might bring to mind the image of womyn/wimmin/women with mullet haircuts and plaid jackets singing outdated folk songs on their acoustic guitars, holding each other tight while crying and singing about wombs and waterfalls.

One thing is for certain: lesbian music has — since its initial heyday in the '70s — gained its place in history as groundbreaking, magical and inspirational to many.

Today, queer women generally don't have much more than a historically fuzzy perspective on that period, much less a sense of the depth and breadth of its significance. Yet many of the reasons that contemporary musicians are free to be out and proud are because of those lesbian foot soldiers of yesteryear.

Five days, over one hundred teenage girls, one goal: be yourself. Not the self your parents hope you’ll be. Not the self your siblings and friends bully you into being. Not the self who mimics those girls you publicly hate but secretly admire because everyone looks at them. Be the real you - the you that ROCKS. This goal is the driving force behind the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls and the basis of the new documentary, Girls Rock!

The Riot Grrl movement in the early 1990s tapped into the raw musical talent and intense energy so many women had been taught to hide and deny. But with every cultural movement comes backlash. For the Riot Grrl movement, it came in the form of vacuous pop music icons with glossy lips, bare midriffs and pigtails, dancing suggestively while singing along to pre-recorded voice tracks.  Clearly, it’s time to re-empower young women.

Identity.  It is a fundamental human construct.  It’s interesting to watch my kids move from the puppy dog-level questions of “Who are you?” and  “What’s that?” to the infinitely more complex question of “Who am I?”  But unlike being able to name “ducky!” and “kitty!” for them, “Who am I?” is a question they’ll have to struggle lifelong to answer for themselves.  Sometimes I can barely answer it for myself.