Twice a month, 20 girls meet after class at Eureka High School in the Redefining Beauty Club.

It's not a how-to session on hair and makeup; it has more to do with what's underneath the skin.

Jessica Bloomrosen, 16, who started the club, said members center their efforts outward, on others, rather than focusing on insecurities about their appearance.

Last year, they volunteered at the St. Louis Crisis Nursery, and this year, they are hosting a prom dress collection drive for needy teens through the Cinderella Project. In March, they're planning a Beautiful Lengths event, where students will donate hair for wigs to give to cancer patients.

Debbie Powell, the school sponsor of the program, said the group formed late last year, and in her mind, it's a club that's needed more than ever.

"It's such a visual society now that I think that has increased the pressure on young women," she said.

By helping other people, the girls raise their self-esteem because it gets the focus on what's really important — making the world a better place, Powell said.

Jessica proposed the club after reading a book called "Operation Beautiful," which has a mission to transform the way girls see themselves "one Post-It note at a time."

Caitlyn Boyle of Charlotte, N.C., inadvertently founded the movement in the summer of 2009, when she was taking science classes at a community college.

Boyle, 27, said she was hoping to switch careers and get accepted into a physical therapy program, but she was struggling in her classes. Besides night school, she was working full time and writing an Internet blog.

One day, she failed a test, and she retreated to a public bathroom to have a meltdown.

"I remember looking in the mirror and thinking 'You're so stupid, you're so worthless. Why are you doing this? You're wasting so much money. You're never going to get into this graduate program,' " she said.

As these negative thoughts were racing through her head, she said something came over her, and she pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and wrote, "You are beautiful" on it.

"I wrote that to remind myself that things like strength and positivity and character come from within, and that's what makes someone really special," she said.

Boyle stuck it on the mirror, took a photo of it and went home and blogged about it.

She asked her readers to participate, and they got behind the idea in a big way. The concept went viral and within three days, Boyle had to launch a separate website (operationbeautiful.com) just to keep up with the notes people were posting and sending to her.

Boyle compiled a book from the most inspirational ones and is currently working on a children's book for young girls. She's gotten notes from every continent and from guys too, which she said proves that everyone goes through the same feelings of self-doubt.

Girls in college, high school and middle school have formed clubs like the one at Eureka High. Some have used it as a way to combat bullying or body image concerns.

Jessica, a junior at Eureka, said she learned about Operation Beautiful when she was doing research for a class project and came across a video about a high school in Texas where girls had decided to wear no makeup to class on Tuesdays. It referenced the website, and she said she went to it and then read the book.

Jessica said the club meets regularly to come up with sayings to write on their bathroom notes, and they've posted them about five times, sometimes at other schools in the district.

The reception to the notes has been positive, she said.

"One girl who saw them came back to class and said: 'Did you see all those notes? It's amazing. I wrote down four of them for myself.' "

Another member of the club, Ashley Cheney, 17, said she liked the notes so much that she copied some of them and put them on a poster board she keeps near the mirror in her bedroom.

"If I'm having a bad hair day, it makes me feel better when I see notes saying things like 'you're beautiful, smile, have a good day,'" she said.

Ashley, a junior, said the notes also have given her a way to encourage other girls.

"I just think it's really important for girls my age to realize that what people think about you isn't really who you are," she said. "And it doesn't really matter if everybody else likes you if you don't like yourself."

Powell said the girls have impressive leadership skills and are using them in the right way.

"It's such a positive group," she said.