Confidence on a Post-It

Bathroom stalls and mirrors are often notorious for their notes and numbers, but one Quinnipiac student is hoping her bathroom scribbles will leave a smile on your face.

Danielle Oliveri, a senior Math major in the MAT program has brought Operation Beautiful to the Quinnipiac campus. In sync with her sisters of Phi Sigma Sigma, Oliveri made different signs to be posted on the backs of bathroom stalls and pasted up on mirrors in bathrooms around the whole campus.

"It's a mission to change the way we see ourselves," Oliveri said of Operation Beautiful. Oliveri first said she heard about the project on the news and presented the idea to her sisters for National Eating Disorder Week. Oliveri said her personal past inspired her to want to spread the positive notes about body image.

"Ever since I talked to them about eating disorders, I knew I wanted to do something in a positive way. It's something that's very close to my heart," Oliveri said of when she spoke to her sorority sisters about the idea. "I told them I really wanted to bring Operation Beautiful here, and they all loved the idea."

Oliveri along with her sisters wrote notes such as "You're Beautiful!" or small messages about finding inner beauty, or just being spontaneous. Each note written and colored by a different member of Phi Sigma Sigma was posted in the bathrooms all around campus. When Oliveri walked into a bathroom, she was greeted by the notes that her friends had written to complete strangers. "This is just so amazing," she said looking at the notes.

When asked if he had seen the signs and what he thought of them, Director of Facilities, Keith Woodward didn't believe the signs had been hand made. "I doubt someone is making up all those signs—they're too ornate and decorated, they look professional or printed," he said.

Other students took note of Oliveri's project and wanted to help extend the operation.

"I have known about Operation Beautiful for a while, but I never thought to bring it to Quinnipiac until Danielle did," said Meghan Trull, a physical therapy graduate student and graduate assistant at the athletic center.

Trull was inspired by Oliveri's idea and is now hoping to decorate the bulletin board for the fitness center to promote the same ideals.

"There are just so many messages to be skinny, and we need a reminder that we all just need to accept ourselves," Trull said. "It was from that idea that I thought about bringing Operation Beautiful into it because the whole point of Operation Beautiful is to promote positive thoughts and a healthy lifestyle for women and men alike."

Oliveri said that while waiting outside the bathroom recently before a class, she saw some girls come out of the bathroom each with a smile. One of them turned to the other and said, "Did you see the notes in there?" To Oliveri, just that one experience made the entire project worth it.

"In high school I was always so shy and quiet--I come to QU and now I'm doing all these crazy and great things," she said. "With this we're just being positive and brightening up someone's day; someone who you don't even know."