East End-based singer Kate Nash headed a workshop for teenage girls at the O2 arena to give budding young musicians guidance on how to crack the industry.

The chart star, who lives in Bethnal Green, visited the site’s interactive museum, the British Music Experience last week to spend a day with the teens.

While there she launched the Co-operative Jam Studio – a new workshop which gives schools, colleges and universities the chance to meet music industry moguls.

More than 10,000 students are expected to visit the studio over the next 12 months.

Kate, best known for her hit single Foundations, has been visiting schools across the country as part of her own project, the Rock’n’Roll for Girls After School Music Club.

She said: “A lot of women in pop aren’t writing their own songs and there is this preconception that women are meant mainly as performers.”

And she said many teens she meets have self-esteem issues.

“A lot of them feel very self-conscious and insecure. They think they could never be a musician as they’re not beautiful enough. People need to be told they can be themselves; a little bit of encouragement; to be told that they are worth something.”

Education manager, Susanne Buck, said the centre’s success – it was highly commended at the European Museums of the Year awards in May – is down to its “cutting edge technology, impressive memorabilia and hands on exhibits”.