British singer Kate Nash is launching a new scheme in the U.K. to encourage schoolgirls to take up songwriting.
The Foundations hitmaker is worried about the lack of emerging female music writers, and she's spearheading the Rock and Roll After-School Music Club initiative in a bid to nurture young talent.
Nash will even visit her own alma mater, Avonbourne Girls School in Bournemouth, south England, on Wednesday (23Mar11) to encourage pupils to take part.
She tells Britain's The Independent, "A lot of women in pop aren't writing their own songs and there is this preconception that women are meant mainly as performers. A lot of people still ask me whether I write my own material, as if women are not capable of doing it. That is damaging to people's reputation."
"It's about showing people a path and saying: 'You can totally do this'. It can be as simple as talking about what I've done. People need to be told they can be themselves; a little bit of encouragement; to be told that they are worth something."