Megan Rapinoe was once the youngest on the U.S. women's national team when she joined in 2006 at 21 years old.

She knows what it's like to be new to the international stage and she understands how hard it is to transition from playing for a club team to representing the United States overseas. 

Jump ahead 13 years. She'll be 34 in July and one of the oldest on the USWNT roster for the World Cup. Over the course of more than a decade, Rapinoe has seen her role transition into one that includes leadership.  She has competed in the Olympics twice, she has two World Cup experiences behind her and she was named one of three captains for the national team in 2018.

"My role has gone through a lot of different stages at this point. Youngest to oldest. From one of the ones being mentored to being a mentor. I just try to take it all in stride,” Rapinoe told Omnisport.

It's a role she's embracing. And it's one she does leading by example.

“I’m not the type of person who’s going to sit the younger players down and give them a presentation or anything, but I think first and foremost the way that I conduct myself — I try and be professional and prepare myself well and be really focused on training," she said. "I try to understand what they’re going through and help them through it."

U.S. coach Jill Ellis acknowledged that the national team roster has a handful of veterans, including Rapinoe, who have taken the Americans' leadership to another level.

Ellis explained that when a new player comes to the team and struggles with one aspect of the game, she directs them to the veterans to gain perspective from those who have been doing it for a while. 

"In terms of our leadership, I think we still have a great core of veterans as a part of our roster," Ellis said at the team's World Cup media day last month. "I think it normally falls on those players to share their experiences. Make sure there’s a push when there needs to be a push and make sure there’s an arm around a shoulder when that’s needed as well for our younger players. I feel very good about the core of our team and the makeup of our team and the character."

Now that Rapinoe has 153 international appearances behind her, she said she has more capacity to mentor the younger players. 

“What I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older is there’s just certain things that you don’t know until you know," Rapinoe said. "And there’s a lot of us that have been through a lot of different situations from qualifying to World Cups to a couple different leagues and so my role is just to relay my experience to the younger kids and just give them a head start by giving them a heads up."

Rapinoe has used her leadership role and her platform of being on the USWNT to help improve women's soccer. She has become outspoken on major issues involving the sport, including gender equality between the women's and the men's game. Rapinoe said one of her main goals is to be a part of the generation that creates more opportunity for the younger players coming up.

“I hope the league is in a better place, more robust," Rapinoe said when asked where she believes the national team will be in 20 years. "This team hopefully continues to grow, continues to be successful. 

"Off the field, I hope we continue to break down stereotypes and push through what it means to be an athlete as a female. Not necessarily a female athlete, but to be a woman and be an athlete at the same time. Hopefully we can continue to evolve what that means and what that looks like."

What's on Megan Rapinoe's resume?