I started with FLL in eighth grade, when my dad decided he'd coach an all girls team to get some girls involved since the 3 other teams from my middle school had only boys. Enough girls didn't sign up, and we ended up with a team mostly of boys. I hated the idea at first and refused to do anything, since engineering was for boys
but loved it in the end and decided to join my high school's FIRST team the next year. Now I spend WAY too much time on FIRST things and am so glad I joined!