After initial introductions, participants divide into teams led by local business owners, all of them women, to brainstorm solutions to problems they see in their community. Later, they pitch them and receive feedback. In the beginning, there are wide stares and mumbled ideas. The lack of directions and the freedom to make choices seem foreign to some. “You can make the rules,” Klein encourages them. “You can be a lady boss.”

Several of the teams decide they want to tackle women’s inequality, a nebulous phrase they eventually realize they need to define as they brainstorm solutions. “Maybe it can start with women getting paid more,” offers 11-year-old Leilani Carlos. “I don’t get why we’re not, because we’re more qualified,” says Mandisa Bailey, 13, correctly noting that more women than men earn bachelor’s degrees.

One team agrees it’s unfair that a member isn’t allowed to play lacrosse with boys after eighth grade and builds a case for inclusion. Another calls out a store that only sells superhero shirts in the “boys” section of the store, and decides they could launch a campaign to get the shop to add superhero shirts to the “girls” section, or start their own shirt company. “Sexist is reckless! Sexist is reckless!” they chant.

Will any of the girls end up as startup founders? Not necessarily, but the idea is to get them thinking like entrepreneurs and innovators, so they’ll be armed with the confidence and mindset to launch something of their own.

“I think it gives them confidence when they see women doing things and realize they can do it, too,” says Kelly Northridge, who co-founded a tech company that helps users navigate the healthcare industry. “Things are changing here,” she continues, but notes that few of the girls she interacts with are receiving the type of mentoring in school that would encourage them to start companies.

“In an emerging city like Reno, we’ve got all kinds of talent and creativity and entrepreneurial spirit,” says Tracy Benelli, a volunteer mentor, who has worked at senior levels at Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Benelli moved to Reno two years ago by choice, she says, and has found that women here are very supportive of each other. She decided to volunteer at the event, she says, to inspire younger girls to take on leadership roles.”It’s about building the scaffolding,” she says.

Girlmade is a small operation for now, but Klein, who also runs a breakfast club for local businesswomen, says she has fielded requests to take the operation on the road. Eventually, she’d like to lead workshops across the United States and offer programs in multiple languages. For now, as more tech companies move their operations to Reno and the city’s own startup incubator gives rise to new ventures, Klein is all about empowering girls in this city to not only be a part of the changes, but to play a leading role in what it looks like in the future.

This article is part of our Next America: Communities project, which is supported by a grant from Emerson Collective.

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