How do you deal with people who don't consider you a real engineer?

Hi Debbie, I'm a senior in high school this year, so I've recently been thinking a lot about what I want my major to be in college. I know that I love mechanical engineering, but I'm so incredibly interested in aesthetic design (i.e. fashion and interior design). I've always loved STEM, and I'm even a leader on my school's robotics team, but my interests are so vastly different than those of the other students on my team. My co-leaders tend to spend their time fixing up old cars, playing with their 3D printers, and rendering our solid works robot into different photoshop backgrounds; I read the poetry of Gregory Corso, look up the trending designs at Free People, and make home made craft-gifts for my friends. I know I'm just as qualified as my co-leaders academically, but I almost constantly feel the need to prove that I'm worthy to be a leader on the team. I read an interview of yours in which you said that you hated it when others didn't consider you a real engineer (sorry that this isn't verbatim, I don't have the article in front of me), and I completely empathize with that feeling. From all of this, I want to ask you two questions: 1) How do you deal with people who don't consider you a real engineer and/or who treat you differently because you're a female engineer? Do you maintain friendly relationships with them, or get angry when they make a rude comment? Do you ignore their biases altogether? 2) Based on this extremely short blurb on my life, does it sound like mechanical engineering with a focus in industrial design would be a good field of study for me in the future? (I understand if you don't feel comfortable answering this question as you don't know me on a personal level) Thank you so much for your time. Lauren