Vocalist Maya Lock holds up her microphone and cues her Extraterrestrigirlz band mates during a Girls Rock! Lawrence camp practice session Tuesday, June 2, 2015, at St. John Catholic School. Hannah Gilmore-Hodge is on guitar, and Sione Worthy Schafer is on drums.

It’s only the first day of the Girls Rock! Lawrence summer camp, but the quartet of middle school-aged girls gathered in an upstairs classroom at St. John Catholic School has already come up with a band name: The Extraterrestrigirlz.

With Maya Lock on vocals, Hannah Gilmore-Hodge on guitar, Amaya Harris on bass and Sione Worthy Schafer on drums, The Extraterrestrigirlz are one of five bands composed of young female musicians performing Saturday night at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St.

The concert, which will also feature performances by adult musicians, is meant to celebrate and support the work of Girls Rock! campers. With the help of band coaches over the course of this week, each of the camp’s five groups is working on an original song to debut at the final showcase.

The Extraterrestrigirlz’ song was coming along nicely Monday afternoon as band coach and local musician Alex Kimball helped adjust Sione’s drum kit.

At 11, Sione is the youngest member in the group and hasn’t had much experience — though with her new friends and bandmates beside her, she’s feeling more comfortable with the idea of performing on stage.

“I just want to be able to play a good song,” Sione says of her goal for the camp. Well, that and having fun.

That’s the idea behind Girls Rock!, which Lawrence musicians Monica George, Angie Schoenherr and Kelly Nightengale — along with friend Sally Sanko — created in response to what they see as a lack of gender equality in the music industry.

They’re hoping to teach campers empowerment through working together, learning new skills and finding an outlet for expression in a safe, noncompetitive environment.

Girls Rock! is all about inclusivity, Nightengale says. She and fellow organizers opened the camp up to girls and transgender youth of all skill levels between grades 7 and 12. Ultimately, they ended up with 21 campers (exceeding their goal of 20) whose musical styles span from rock to pop to folk to hip-hop.

Throughout the week, campers will have the chance to interact with professional female musicians and watch them perform. Participating bands include Katlyn Conroy’s La Guerre and Monica George’s The Ovaries-eez. The campers will also be getting lessons in instrument playing, songwriting and band promotion, plus nonmusical subjects such as self-defense, Feminism 101 and yoga.

At the camp, it’s not uncommon to hear grownup staffers — organizers, instrument instructors and band coaches, all of whom are women — lament not having this kind of opportunity as a young girl.

“I was kind of anticipating more cattiness on the girls’ part,” Kimball says back in The Extraterrestrigirlz practice room. “But they’re all congratulating each other and running with each other’s ideas and having fun.”

Aside from Amaya and Hannah, who are both seventh-graders at South Middle School, none of the bandmates had met before Monday afternoon.

When the group’s original lead singer couldn’t attend camp, Maya came in “at the last minute” to save the day.

As lead vocalist, she’s writing most of group’s song, with help from her new friends. Tentatively titled “Dreams,” the song is partly about pursuing individuality in the face of peer pressure. The girls, along with the other bands, will record their track before Saturday’s showcase at the Lawrence Public Library’s Sound + Vision studio.

“It’s from personal experience, because, you know, I’m not the most normal person you’ve ever met,” says Maya, who at 13 boasts a nose ring and a partially buzzed haircut. “For some reason, they (the kids at school) thought you had to be uptight, you had to be normal, you had to be in the ‘in crowd’ to do what you wanted to do.”

But what she wanted, it turns out, was to rock.

“So,” Maya says, her voice dropping, “I was like, ‘I’m going to prove you wrong.'”

Based on the sounds coming from the group’s practice room, it seems she’s well on her way.