PANORAMA CITY, Calif. — For many students in Los Angeles County, the last year of school has been anything but normal with classes going online, but sixth grader Sophia Mendoza doesn't mind. 

"I'm happy about it because that's the only way I can go to school and make friends," she said.

All of her friends are girls because Sophia attends GALS, or the Girls Athletic Leadership School. It is a single-gender middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her mother, Tweetum Mendoza, said she always wanted her daughter to have this educational experience. 

"In the Philippines, I went to the all-girls high school, and I loved it," she said. "It empowered me, and I wanted my daughter to experience it as well."

It is an experience that typically comes with a price tag because single-gender education is often available through private schools in Southern California. This option is too expensive for the Mendozas, they said. According to founding principal Vanessa Garza, GALS is a charter school open to any middle schooler in L.A. County, even if you don't live in the district. 

"Students that we serve are 88% from low-income families. Ninety-eight percent identify as a person of color, and this is an opportunity that is literally in their neighborhood," Garza said. 

There is only one other school in the LASUD that offers single-gender education for girls.

Since GALS launched five years ago, it has shared campuses with co-ed schools, moving three times to accommodate the growing student body. It currently shares a campus with Panorama High School in the San Fernando Valley, but Garza said they really need a space of their own. 

"As a single-gender school, you want to honor that space and create a brave space for the students to learn in," Garza said. 

Recently, the L.A. City Planning Commission approved the construction of a new permanent campus for GALS in Van Nuys, which Garza hopes to break ground on by late summer, with a promise to dedicate 100 spots to students in the surrounding neighborhood. 

Garza said the school helps girls as young as 11-years-old focus on a college-preparatory curriculum and develop leadership skills and confidence without boys' distraction.

Students also recite a pledge every morning with phrases such as "I stand up for what I believe in" and "I make choices and decisions that are good for me," focusing on social and emotional well-being. 

"If you feel like you can bring your whole self to school, then you are more likely to be successful on the academics," Garza said.

Students like Mendoza are already reaping the benefits as she said proudly with her arms raised in the air, "In GALS, we can do anything. We can be powerful!"