Seeing the Beautiful

Kathy Bell has no background in art and never imagined she’d be involved with a public art installation.

But about four years ago, while in a “deep valley” in her life, the Fayetteville mom got some divine inspiration. She was visiting Chicago when her Uber driver took a wrong turn, bringing her face to face with not just one, but two signs that read “You are Beautiful.” When she came back home, she couldn’t stop thinking about those signs and “all the people like me who needed to hear that message…I wanted others to experience what I had.”

So, Bell began placing handmade

“You are Beautiful” signs in her own front yard. Notes appeared on her doorstep and in her mailbox about how the signs touched people. The signs were continually stolen and she’d put new ones up, but that got her thinking about doing something more permanent.

“I investigated and found out the two signs I saw in Chicago weren’t isolated, they were part of a movement taking place all around the world, of spreading these powerful and transformative three words of kindness and identity,” Bell recalled.

She contacted the You are Beautiful headquarters to see what her options were. She was gifted a sign to display, but was then faced with a dilemma—where to put it?

“I was perplexed about how and where to get the ball rolling with the city. One of my husband’s friends suggested contacting the Fayetteville chamber,” she said. Bell’s daughter had been a participant in the Chamber’s high school leadership program. So she reached out to Teen ‘X’perience program leader Jennifer Irwin, who connected her with Chamber President and CEO Steve Clark.

“He was very eager to hear my story and was immediately on board with the message and how we could share it with the community,” Bell said. “He took on all the legwork and cost of getting it installed and with all the complications, it took over a year… he is tenacious and it wouldn’t have such a wonderful location if it weren’t for him!”

“It took a while to figure out where the sign should go,” Clark admitted. “We kept looking for a place where the most people would see it. Then one day Kathy and I were out in front of the Chamber and I said ‘why don’t we put it right there?’ and I pointed to the front of the building. She was thrilled.”

The sign went up the day before Thanksgiving, 2021. It’s the only one in the state of Arkansas.

Now, what Bell calls the “lifechanging truth that every single person is beautiful“is there for all to see at the top of the Chamber building, facing the square.

Clark says he’s gotten a number of comments letting him know that the simple, powerful message is being seen. Bell says “I don’t think I will ever know how this message will change the course of a person’s day or maybe even their life, but that’s ok…I am just a steward of the message.”

She notes one cool development has been that after her Facebook post about the project, a friend saw it and offered her a job—asking if she would come be the voice of “you are beautiful” at her spa.

“We try to emphasize that we are not here trying to ‘make’ anyone beautiful, but to bring out the beauty that is already within them,” Bell says. “We give a sticker to every client as they check out… it’s been a sweet next phase of sharing the message with others! We had a cheer coach share stickers with her high school girls to remind them of that message when they may feel they are pressured to look a certain way.”

Bell says her dream is not only that people would believe the “You are Beautiful” message for themselves, but would also be encouraged to see the beauty in others.

“As our world is becoming so polarized, I hope that people will challenge themselves to see the truth that there is beauty in the person who doesn’t think like you, act like you, or look like you and treat them with the kindness and compassion that this truth warrants. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”