What’s in a Brand Name?

The Story Behind “Cameras For Girls.”

Have you ever had someone question how to spell your own name?

I have.

A while back, someone asked me to spell my name.

“Amina Mohamed,” I said.

There was a pause.

“Are you sure there isn’t another ‘m’ in Mohamed?”

I laughed because really, how do you answer that?

“I’ve only had this name my entire life.”

Names are personal. They carry history, culture, identity, and sometimes a story people do not see at first glance.

That is why I understand when people ask about ours.

Why Cameras For Girls?

Why not Cameras for Girls?

Why not Camera for Girls?

And why “girls” when many of the people in our programs are young women?

The answer goes back to where this work began.

Before Cameras For Girls had a name

In 2018 and 2019, this work started under my photography company at the time, Triple F Photo Tours.

We were running photography workshops in Uganda, and it became clear that this needed its own identity.

So I started playing with names.

I wrote them in notebooks. I said them out loud. I imagined them on a website. I checked domains. I probably overthought it, as founders tend to do.

But I knew one thing from the beginning.

I did not want a name that only made sense to people in Canada.

This work began in Uganda, so the name needed to be shaped by the language, culture, and context around it.

It needed to come from listening.

Why Cameras For Girls

When I landed on Cameras For Girls, it felt right.

Cameras, because photography is the tool.

For, because this is about access, opportunity, and possibility.

Girls, because of the cultural context where the work began.

Not long after, a Canadian photography friend said to me, “I think you got the name wrong. You work with Ugandan women, not girls.”

I understood the question.

In Canada, we often hear “girls” and think of children.

But in Uganda, the phrase girl child is commonly used in conversations about education, opportunity, rights, and future pathways. It carries meaning that does not translate neatly into North American English.

That stayed with me.

I did not want to build something that simply carried Canadian language into Uganda.

I wanted to pay attention to the words being used in the place where this work began.

So Cameras For Girls was not chosen because it sounded catchy.

It was chosen because it fit the context.

Then I Googled it

Years later, curiosity got the better of me.

I typed “cameras for girls” into Google.

The internet did not disappoint.

Pink cameras.

Purple cameras.

Sparkly cameras.

Polka dot cameras.

Unicorn cameras.

Apparently, if you are a girl, the internet thinks your camera should look like it was attacked by a glitter cannon.

I laughed.

Then I kept scrolling.

That is when the results became much less funny.

Mixed in were disturbing corners of the internet connected to people using cameras to exploit girls.

That stopped me cold.

Because that is the complete opposite of who we are.

Search one phrase and you fall into a strange little rabbit hole of toy cameras and things no one wants to find.

Search Cameras For Girls, and you find something different.

You find girls and young women learning photography.

Creating images.

Building portfolios.

Documenting their communities.

Sharing their own perspectives.

One search brings up assumptions.

The other brings you to us.

Why we are careful with our name

Our name is not interchangeable.

It is not Camera for Girls.

It is not Cameras for Girls.

It is Cameras For Girls.

Every word was chosen with care.

A name tells people what you noticed, what you listened to, and whose perspective shaped the decision.

For us, Cameras For Girls reflects the place where this work began and the people whose creativity continues to shape it.

The story we want people to find

At its core, Cameras For Girls is about photography.

It is also about access, creativity, income pathways, local storytelling, and the right to be seen through your own lens.

That is why we are careful with our name.

When someone searches for us, we want them to find the real story.

Not pink plastic cameras.

Not harmful content.

Not someone else’s assumptions.

We want them to find girls and young women across Africa using photography to tell stories, build skills, and create new possibilities for themselves.

So the next time you mention us, tag us, share our work, or tell a friend about us, please use our full name:

Cameras For Girls.

Behind those three words is a story.

It began in Uganda.

It began with listening.

And it is still being written.