Conservative commentator Dana Loesch asked a crowd of more than 1,000 young women Thursday night if they’ve ever faced insults over their conservative beliefs.

Nearly every hand shot straight into the air.

"Wow. This just hurts me in my heart to see," she said to the crowd of teens and young women at the Hyatt Regency hotel at DFW International Airport. "Look at this; I know it feels like Mean Girls for a moment, but that is amazing."

The Southlake resident was one of several well-known conservative figures to speak Thursday night at the fourth annual Young Women's Leadership Summit, a four-day conference that offers leadership training and networking opportunities to young conservative women. Loesch is also the spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, one of the summit's hosts.

For some in the audience, it was a moment of reckoning: Conservative women must stick together and support each other in today's political climate.

"Never, ever, bow a knee," Loesch told the crowd. "Never bend a knee, never bow before the outrage mob on any issue, ever. Know that you are in truth, that what you believe is right. I know it's hard."

But it's particularly difficult for conservatives who are also women, she said.

"For all of the talk about sexism, conservative women face abuse that I have never seen," Loesch said. "Wear it like a crown, because it is."

1 / 4Heather Young (left) and Kylee Taylor, both from the University of Toledo, listen to conservative political commentator Dana Loesch speak at the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit, a conference for young conservative women, on Thursday, June 14, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency hotel at DFW International Airport, Texas. (Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor) 2 / 4Conservative political commentator Dana Loesch speaks at the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit, a conference for young conservative women, on Thursday, June 14, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at DFW International Airport, Texas.(Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor) 3 / 4Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro speaks at the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit, a conference for young conservative women, on Thursday, June 14, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at DFW International Airport, Texas. (Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor) 4 / 4Chrissy Clark, left, and Gabriella Spahr, center, listen to conservative political commentator Dana Loesch speak at the Turning Point USA Young Women's Leadership Summit, a conference for young conservative women, on Thursday, June 14, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at DFW International Airport, Texas.(Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor)

The summit is hosted by Turning Point USA, a grass-roots organization that pushes young conservatives to start college campus chapters promoting small government, free market principles and other conservative ideals.

Loesch spoke at the event with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.

Tomi Lahren, a former Dallas resident and conservative figurehead who spoke at last year's summit, is scheduled for Friday night, before Kirk and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

The panels include discussions on the Second Amendment, how to resist "political correctness," and how to become a conservative leader on a liberal college campus.

That last panel will feature a few themes that resonate with many of the attendees. A recurring message during Thursday’s remarks was how difficult it is to be a conservative on a liberal campus, let alone a young conservative woman.

After being raised a Democrat, Kyasia Benjamin, 22, “came out” as a conservative Republican to her friends and family a few months ago, at the end of her last semester at Maryville College in Tennessee.

“Were they too happy about it? I highly doubt it,” she said. “But they’ve respected it.”

Benjamin, who writes for the conservative group Future Female Leaders, called her grandmother to warn her that she was officially letting the world know about her beliefs in an upcoming article.

“I told her, ‘Hey, just so you know, the article is supposed to come out today. I don’t want you getting any crazy phone calls, since you already knew about it,’” she said. “Apparently, two of my aunts had read it and thought it was very well-written, well-worded, and I come to find out that one of my cousins and my brother voted for Trump."

“It’s knowing that I have that support, and that even though we don’t agree, we can still respect each other,” she added.

WOW! @DLoesch you BLEW it outta Dallas tonight. Thank you for your motivational and spiritual words tonight. #YWLS2018 @TPUSA God Bless🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/B5TIICnuAU — Tiffany Roberts (@TiffRoberts016) June 15, 2018

Alexis Bailey, 20, said she is familiar with feeling like an outcast in a sea of liberals.

Bailey, who attends Rider University in New Jersey, was in a class with a professor who assigned students to read Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto during her first year in college. As he walked into the classroom, he told the students that he planned to “make you all Marxists” by the end of class, she said.

“It got to a point, halfway through the class, where I was like, I can’t sit here and not say anything,” Bailey said. “[Loesch’s] message of when it gets to a point where you know it’s wrong and you know you have to speak up — it’s important to remember. I’m sure I’m going to come across an instance like that again in the future.”

Bailey said she has one piece of advice for conservatives in situations when it feels difficult to stand up for your beliefs: Know your audience, and realize when it’s time to say something and when it’s time to listen.

“Sometimes, it’s ‘not bowing’ by not speaking,” Bailey said. “It may not always be worth the fight. But when you know in your heart that you have to say something? Say something.”