The egg whites need to be quite frothy before you add in the sugar. If there was any grease contamination they will not whip, or at least not well. Glass bowls are very poor for whipping whites. 10 minutes is way longer than it should take, so I am guessing something went wrong. Sorry 
im new to making meringue's but mine usually take about 2 minutes. i tried once with my hand mixer, in a glass bowl and it didn't work. then once i used my KA with the whip and on really high speed it worked like a charm. very easy, once i did it right!
Oops! Need to add that your beaters need to be dry, room temp & no grease as well. I've never had anything but a hand mixer & have made tons of "stiff" egg whites, etc. in my day. It truly doen't take power or tons of time... just the right temp, dryness & super clean utensils. 
Sounds to me like there was a bit of yolk in your egg whites. They won't whip if that is the case.
The sugar needs to be added very slowly.
During the food safety class, I asked the instructor about recipes that are callling for eggs to be at room temperature. he said he's never heard a chef actually explain why that makes a difference. Bottom line is that he is never walking into my kitchen and finding room temperature eggs.
The optimal eggwhite beating scenario is a stainless steel bowl and just a smidge of salt in the whites. Plastic is difficult to get completely grease free and glass is too smooth as others have said.
And of course everything must be very clean and very dry, as already mentioned.
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