Operation Beautiful UEA: These Post-It notes on campus will restore your faith in humanity.

Tensions are high on campus. Students are either holed up in library carrels pretending to work or they are desperately trying to escape election candidates harassing them. We are tired and stressed. Apart from a little burst of sunshine, the world can forgive us for being pretty miserable at the moment.

Notes like these have been springing up all over campus

But amongst the gloom, something strange has been happening in the girls’ toilets. Every time we look in the mirror to moan about the bags under our eyes, we’re told, via a little post-it note that ‘you are beautiful’ or ‘if there was a course in smiling, you’d be the teacher’.

Operation Beautiful UEA have been busy posting these notes all over campus. Beginning on Wednesday, they aim to have the entire campus toilet mirrors covered in inspirational, affirming quotations, to remind students of their worth.

opuea2 Feminism Society President Tilly Wood found these in the toilets in Blue Bar.

It’s a small but sweet gesture to help make someone’s day a little brighter, but according to co-ordinator Sarah-Joy Wickes, there is more to it.

‘I wrote an article for The Tab about my experiences with bulimia and many people wrote to me saying how much they appreciated it. It was then that I realised just how many people these illnesses effect, and the support of those people encouraged me to do more to promote awareness within the university.’

 The notes are brightening days all over campus!

Sarah is keenly aware that, for many students, living with an eating disorder is a day to day reality. She wants Operation Beautiful UEA to reach out to these students- but also to touch anyone who might suffer from poor self-esteem or body image issues.

‘When you have an eating disorder, you feel an automatic affinity to other sufferers, and feel a fierce sense of protectiveness. I think I speak for many people like me when I say that my own experiences have made me adamant to improve the likelihood that others don’t experience the same problems.’

Students have tweeted their support for the campaign. Finance Officer Joe Levell said it was ‘amazing’ and 3rd year Steph Clifton said ‘It made my day!’

Notes in the Campus Kitchen toilets!

But Operation Beautiful UEA has met with resistance in one of the busiest areas of campus. ‘The Library staff were not happy with our sticky exploits’, says Sarah, ‘One member of staff started systematically following me and tearing down the notes as I put them up. Another told me that everyone in the library already accepted their body. I told her to tell that to the 1.6 million people in the UK with an eating disorder, smiled and walked away.’ She is also meeting with resistance from the University as they are concerned Operation Beautiful UEA’s next stunt, which involves drawing round people in the Square to promote the idea that different body types are normal, will put prospective students off coming to UEA as it takes place on an Open Day.

Sarah isn’t giving up, though. ‘The event will serve as a finger up to the media’s prescriptivist ideas of beauty, and promote the idea that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Hopefully every student who’s ever thought that their body isn’t beautiful will see something familiar-looking to help them realise how wonderful they actually are.’

You can like the Operation Beautiful UEA Facebook page here. Send us your pictures of the notes that have brightened up your day! @TheTabNorwich.