In 2011, a chance encounter taking photos with four local Turkish girls in Istanbul gave Chiu the inspiration to start photography workshops: “The girls wore hijab and they were quite young, around 16-years-old,” she recalls. “The media has a certain portrayal of Muslim girls. It was just so interesting to see things a different way, which was somewhat contradictory to these misconceptions.” Of the world’s 796 million illiterate adults, 64 percent are women. Another form of expression, photography is not always accessible in every corner of the developing world, so Chiu decided to encourage women to tell their own ‘herstories’ through the art. With two other girls also from Hong Kong, the 20-year-old set up Lensational to empower women emotionally and economically by providing recycled cameras, photography workshops and setting up exhibitions and photography sales all around the world.