25 RNRR <33- Role Models from Pasadena

We are FTC team 25, the Rock N’ Roll Robots, an all-girls community based team funded by Girl Scouts from Pasadena CA. For many years, our motto has been “We don’t just build robots, we build women,” because girls come into our team knowing next to nothing about robotics and come out not only technically skilled but also strong leaders, whether they decide to pursue STEM beyond high school or not.

This past year, our two most experienced members graduated, so now the longest anyone on our team has been in FTC is 3 years. We lost 6 years of acquired skill and knowledge, so naturally our robot performance hasn’t been on the same level as previous years. In addition to that, we decided to switch leagues this year so we’re not as connected to the teams in our new league and had to adjust to the new event schedule and locations. We as a team know that this year will be a learning experience, a valuable growth year, but we’ve had teams publicly say things like “RNRR is not cooking this year,” “RNRR is questionable,” or even “I think that’s a fully new team this year I don’t think anyone is a returning member,” which can be really disheartening coming from our own league. We’ve learned to ignore such comments and use them as motivation to do even better, because we know our worth as a team.

On top of that, we’ve noticed that there seems to be an unsaid bias surrounding our inherent abilities as an all-girls team; the reason for our lower robot performance this year is not because of us being girls. To some people in the FIRST community, boys should be doing the technical stuff and leave the outreach for girls. We’ve heard people say things about how we’re only in the competition for the Inspire Award or that the only reason we win it is because we’re an all-girls team. We’re also known as “the Girl Scout team” to a few local teams, which, while true, tends to come with a certain connotation about why we’re in FTC. While everyone on the team is a registered Girl Scout, that doesn’t affect our abilities on or off the field, and shouldn’t be our main defining trait. On top of that, it feels like when some teams see us with our purple overload, star sunglasses on top of our safety glasses, and blow up guitars, they assume that we’re more interested in the aesthetic than the competition, which simply isn’t true. We can still have a good robot and be capable while having fun making things look good!!

With all that being said, being an all-girls team is really cool in that we’re such a close community, so our team dynamic is really nice and supportive, and no one is afraid of being shot down for sharing their ideas. It’s so empowering to be surrounded by girls who have similar interests to you, whether they’re your age or 5 years older/younger. Because we have members from several different schools, we’ve been able to make so many life-long friends that we would never have met if not for this team. Girls are so often told that their chances of exceeding in STEM are so much lower than those of boys, but we have the opportunity to break that cycle and spark younger girls’ interests so that they know they have a shot. Being all-girls gives us an inherent shared experience that we can relate and connect over–and that goes beyond our team as well; we can also connect with so many other all-girls teams around the world with similar experiences and have such a wonderful network of support, which we are so grateful for.

All in all, while being on an all-girls team comes with many assumptions and disheartening moments that ultimately stem from misogyny, the benefits of the supportive circle we’ve been able to cultivate outweigh the negatives. We are so grateful to our FIRST community and all the support it gives, and hope to continue to inspire others and be inspired.

- 25 RNRR <33