My daughter is currently 15, and has been doing organized tours since she was 11. I credit them for her current love of cycling. Before we started touring, she liked riding okay, but wasn't wild about it. I finally bribed her with a new bike (as in "If you will do this 6 day long tour with us, we'll get you a bike with the same number of gears that Dad and I have!") and she agreed.
On the first tour she got sunburned, developed an allergy to her bike shorts that made her legs break out in hives, fell off a trail into a swamp during a rainstorm, and did 40-60 mile days with virtually no training. She cried when it was over and couldn't wait for the next one. I'm pretty sure it was because she had successfully done something she never thought she'd be able to do.
Try it...you never know what might happen!
