SADIE DUPUIS, 29, OF SAD13 AND SPEEDY ORTIZ Am I the only person who was very inspired by the “Josie and the Pussycats” movie? It’s sort of telling that the example I use is a fictional band [laughs]. Because I was 13 when that movie came out and I was like, “Oh, cool, a band of all women — I can do this, too; I will learn guitar.” But it wasn’t until I was older that I started thinking about the fact that all the guitar-based music that I was really interested in was primarily made by groups of four white guys.

SHAWNA POTTER, 35, OF WAR ON WOMEN I saw Courtney Love playing guitar on MTV in the “Doll Parts” video, and I immediately was like, “I can do that.” I hadn’t seen any other woman on TV playing music before, so I didn’t even realize it was possible.

CHRISTINA HALLADAY, 32, OF SHEER MAG It takes a long time when you don’t see someone who looks like you doing it. I was trying to get in with the boys I knew who were playing music and I would just hang out when they were practicing, like, “I’m here and I can sing.” But it took forever — until I demanded it.

POTTER Representation really matters — you can’t be what you can’t see.

LAETITIA TAMKO, 24, OF VAGABON The first time that I felt like I could play guitar music was when I saw a guy that I know’s band. It was the first time that I’d seen live music and I was 21, which is very late in life. I was like, “That’s it?” I was always interested, but seeing that you can learn while doing it, instead of just getting into the game and being really good at it [made me feel] like, “Oh, I can totally do this.”

HALLADAY Yeah, you have to suck for a while.

ALEX LUCIANO, 22, OF DIET CIG You have to suck for so long! No one tells you that it’s O.K. to suck. [laughter]

POTTER Just because of your gender, though. There’s millions of completely mediocre to terrible bands with dudes in them.