A journey, eight months in the making, had all lead up to one Tuesday morning. For senior Jazzy Schwolert, it was a chance to change the lives of the Marcus girls around her.

 Armed with bright eyes and not a hint of makeup on their faces, one new group hopes to redefine the way women and young girls feel about themselves.

For Schwolert, a girl who has always worn makeup to school in the past, the idea of not wearing any would be a new challenge for herself and the 20 other members of the new club that she helped bring to the hallways.

“I’ve never not worn makeup to school so it was definitely weird the first time. But since a big group of girls are doing it with you, you don’t feel so alone,” Schwolert said.

Though the Redefining Beautiful club is new to the school this year, the nationwide movement encouraging young girls to leave behind the powder and mascara one day a week to showcase who they truly are was first developed in 2010 by a group of high school girls just 20 miles down the road.

The idea of bringing the self-empowering club to Marcus came to Schwolert late 2010 after watching a morning episode of the Today Show. A group of six young girls all wearing matching purple t-shirts sat on a bench in front of their high school, Colleyville Heritage. Their bare faces stared into the camera as they spoke out on the issue of the media filling young girls heads with negative messages about themselves and giving them unattainable goals. According to the girls, the club is an adaption they made from the National Operation Beautiful movement, where women place Post-it notes with inspiring messages in public areas.

All six vowed to take a stand on the issue by deciding to not wear makeup one day a week, and see what would happen. They called the newly formed national club “Redefining Beautiful”.

“It is promoting inner beauty in girls so they can be more confident in who they are naturally,” Schwolert explained.

The movement has been catching on, one school at a time. Schwolert has already received a lot of support for her efforts, from encouraging handmade signs made by close friends, to the encouraging comments she gets on Facebook.

As the club gets bigger and as more girls learn about the movement, Schwolert hopes that boys at school would support their efforts to change society by creating a Redefining Beautiful support group.

“Impressing guys is a huge part of girls life in high school,” Schwolert said. “If guys supported (girls) being natural, it would make a big difference.”

Even teachers are praising the new club, like Marcus math teacher Sarah Allshouse who took on the role of club sponsor.

Allshouse and Schwolert had attended the same church and when Schwolert decided to finally start up the club in January 2011, she said she knew that Allshouse would help her.

“There are a lot of negative messages from the media on how you should look, so I think the group will be a positive influence for teenagers,” Allshouse said. “And Jazzy will do a great job in promoting the message.”

Some may feel that this club is attacking makeup in general, but Schwolert insists that this is not the case.

“I wear makeup everyday (except Tuesdays) and it’s fun for girls,” she said. “But there are a lot of girls wearing makeup for wrong reasons. They are wearing it to make them feel better about themselves, but it’s okay to be natural sometimes.”

The first meeting was held on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Meetings will continue to be held the first Tuesday of every month, even though the “No Makeup Tuesdays” are every Tuesday.

While the agenda for meeting days is not completely decided, Schwolert would like to see the club promoting self-confidence for girls. They plan on following the Operation Beautiful path by making encouraging signs around the hallways and writing inspirational messages, such as “You are beautiful” on Post-It notes and placing them on the bathroom mirrors around school.

As for now, Schwolert and her group will continue making a statement and show girls of all ages that it’s okay to be who you really are.

“I think it’s important that when you don’t wear makeup, that you can become more confident and eventually learn that people aren’t going to judge you,” she said. “They will accept you whether you are wearing makeup or not.”