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SPEAKER 1: 2, 3, 4.

[HOT KOOL-AID PLAYING]

JESS MADOR: In a soundproof basement studio at the Perpich Center for Arts Education in Golden Valley, Hot Kool-Aid are rehearsing their latest song.

(SINGING) Step outside, all you hear is [? magical ?]

Look at me, all you see is dramatastical

Smile at me, my heart feels warm inside

JESS MADOR: The five girls who make up Hot Kool-Aid are between 10 and 12 years old. They come from across the metro and Wisconsin each day for the week-long girls rock and roll retreat camp. The floor of the small recording studio is a bright jumble of clothing, ponytail holders, guitar picks, homemade concert posters and buttons.

If it weren't for the amps, guitars, drums and other hardcore music gear, it could be mistaken for a sleepover. But it's serious business. With the help of a professional adult female musician and a junior counselor, the girls, Billie Forester, Olivia Vang, Minika Warden, Kaemella Foster, and Freyja Vanderpaardt, are learning all the fundamentals of rocking out.

Well-known Twin Cities musician and camp founder Jenny Case says it's a crash course in rock and roll for about 70 campers over two weeks each summer.

JENNY CASE: 40 hours, basically. They learn an instrument. They get put in a band. They write a song, and they put on a concert.

JESS MADOR: This is the camp's fourth season. Some of the campers, who range in age from 9 to 17, come with previous musical experience. But some have never even touched an instrument. Most are all really shy at first and afraid to speak up. But Case says all that quickly changes.

JENNY CASE: By Friday, they're just-- their band rules. And they're on stage just putting on a great concert.

JESS MADOR: The camp has no strict rules about costumes or song content. The girls can do pretty much what they want. But case says there is one important rule.

JENNY CASE: We're not allowed to apologize for making mistakes or not being good enough, which girls often do. Instead, they have to say, I rock. So, if you hear someone else apologizing, they're playing a chord or they're not picking something up quick, and they're like, sorry, you have to say, no. You rock. You rock.

JESS MADOR: That empowering message is clearly getting across to the Hot Kool-Aids. All talking at once, the girls say their band rocks at least as hard as any boy band.

SPEAKER 1: Yes.

SPEAKER 2: Better. Better.

SPEAKER 3: We play boys better.

BILLIE FORESTER: We agree on everything.

SPEAKER 1: Yes, exactly. We're more committed.

BILLIE FORESTER: Boys fight on everything.

JESS MADOR: And Billie says they're more productive in an all-girls rock camp than they would be in a camp with boys.

BILLIE FORESTER: They have it in their minds that they're tougher and better than girls are. So I guess, maybe putting them in a rock band camp with girls might make them think that they're in charge. If they were put in a same band as the girls, they might think that they're in charge of their band or something.

JESS MADOR: Camp founders hope that separating girls from boys will empower the girls at a critical time in their development. Widespread research shows girls' self-esteem often plummets in the preteen years. That's because experts say negative media and peer messages can push girls to link their self-worth to their sex appeal. And this can cause them to dumb themselves down, become passive, self-conscious, image-obsessed, and depressed, and act out.

Girls are more likely than boys to attempt suicide, experience substance abuse, and have eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Jenny Case got so tired of seeing girls become shrinking violets at coed rock camps. She teamed up with other female rockers to establish the first one for girls in Minnesota in 2006.

[HOT KOOL-AID, "I'M NOT YOUR SISTER'S BARBIE DOLL"]

Outside the practice studio, guitar instructor Erica Krumm is helping camper Kaemella Foster learn the chords to the Hot Kool-Aid's latest song called "I'm Not Your Sister's Barbie Doll."

ERICA KRUMM: D Minor and then C. I know that's a hard switch. You got it, though.

JESS MADOR: Then they go back into the studio to rehearse with the rest of the band.

(SINGING) So real

JESS MADOR: When asked during a break if they plan to keep playing music, all the girls raise their hands.

BILLIE FORESTER: We're all pretty awesome.

SPEAKER 2: We rock.

JENNY CASE: Agree.

BILLIE FORESTER: Yeah.

SPEAKER 3: We rock.

SPEAKER 1: All girls should come to this camp because it's really, really fun.

JESS MADOR: The camp finishes today with two live performances. Organizers hope the confidence the girls have gained on stage will also help them speak up and stand up for themselves for the rest of their lives.

Jess Mador, Minnesota Public Radio News, Golden Valley.

[DRUM BEATS]