Have You Met Gina?

Most likely you don't know Gina. That's the name of the image of the girl in the Girls Helping Girls. Period. logo. She got her name on a blustery March day, in 2015, when the three co-founders of Girls Helping Girls. Period. went into New York City to CultHealth, the ad agency responsible for the logo that makes so many people smile.

GHGP was not conceived as a non-profit organization that would be running for years. It was, at first, a family project. But, as it often happens with volunteer projects, if you find a niche and there is a need, the work simply continues. Happily, of course! The founder of CultHealth knew of GHGP's work in the community where his son and Emma were classmates from way back in preschool. His team "gifted" their beautiful creation and Gina has been a part of the party ever since.

And what a fantastic experience for Emma and Quinn, who were just 15 and 11 at that point! Here's how it came together: First, they got on the phone with one of the advertising executives to talk about their work, and what feelings and thoughts they had about the image of their organization. They were invited to go into the agency a few weeks later to see how that all translated into a brand.

The girls remember they saw a series of images meant to be prospective logos. Quinn, who is artistic herself, and has taken classes in design and architecture says, "We started to get nervous, because nothing was inspiring us. One logo after the next looked nice, but none of them looked like us." The meeting went on that way for about 30 minutes and then it happened. "We were sitting around a conference room table and the images were all up on a screen. They would flip to the next image and explain why they thought it would work. We sat there politely until they got to the current logo and my mom, Quinn and I all lit up. It was perfect," says Emma.

It was only when they all walked outside that it hit Emma, "We should call her Gina! Get it?!" At first Quinn and Elise didn't get it. Then Emma glared at them and in a few seconds they all burst out laughing at the nickname which is short for "Vagina," clearly pronounced vuh-GEE-nuh. ;)

The only work left to do at that point was to pick the main color for the logo. Somehow, that was the hard part. The girls argued over whether the color should convey gender-neutrality, or whether it should be red, because... blood. In the end, magenta just felt right and they've never looked back.

Read more about the girls, and the GHGP team here!

A version of this article appeared on "The Spot," the Girls Helping Girls. Period. blog