Hey Anna!
Like Ellen, I've always been interested in math and science, but wasn't even aware of what engineering was until I became a member of my high school's FIRST team. Through my time on that team, I discovered that the hands-down most satisfying thing that I could do was make something tangible through the "design, build, test, and repeat" process.
I've found that, while a few of my female engineer friends had experiences similar to mine, a lot more were inspired to go into engineering because of childhood experiences such as fixing cars or designing and building wooden dollhouses with close relatives. The family influence in the elementary-middle school years is definitely huge. I have some papers with statistics on that; I'll try to dig them up for you.
Let me know if you have any other questions, you know where to find me
