Glamour project for L.A. homeless creates confidence

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Instead of getting food and money, the homeless women of Southern California are getting makeovers.

After losing nearly everything of material value, the last thing a person would think a homeless woman needs is a makeover; but Kara Fox, the co-founder of Glamour Project, knows that homelessness is not only about losing houses and cars.

Fox says, "Sometimes people who are having challenging times are looked at as though they are lesser people or as though they're invisible people and I think it's critically important to mirror back to someone how lovely they are."

That is exactly what Glamour Project does. The project is a volunteer non-profit effort to remind homeless women that they're beautiful inside and out.

"That I think is part of the backbone of Glamour Project, to allow the women to get in touch with the beauty that they have that they don't remember because no one has really addressed it," says Fox.

The Glamour Project visits homeless shelters throughout the Los Angeles area. They take makeup and props for a day of pampering and dressing up. Pamela, a veteran of Daybreak Women's Shelter and participant in Glamour Project, remembers the day she got her makeover.

She says, "they did the nails, they put hats on, they did some makeup and they dressed me up. They brought like a series of clothes for different types of personalities. It was fun to see myself as someone else would dress me up."

Not everyone thought the project was fun though. Linda, another Glamour Project participant, couldn't wait to wash her face at the end of the day.

"I finally get this stuff off ... I don't wear makeup normally so this is kind of like woah. When I go outside and see myself I'm kind of like where did all of this come from, woah," says Linda.

But even though she wasn't a fan of all the makeup on the outside, Linda says the makeover she got on the inside was worth it.

"Well when you're depressed and living on the streets, you know when that has happened in your life, you're in the gutter. You're self-esteem is in the gutter and just this little thing of showing up and they make you up and dress you up and take pictures and everyone's oohing and ahhing and saying things . It helps the self-esteem, it helps lift you up and make you feel better about yourself."

At the end of the day the women may still be homeless but the glamour shot keychain they now have serves as a reminder that transformation is possible.