Rita slept on the streets of Turkey and collected bottles and bags to survive. She had lost a son, and with him, says someone who knew her, she seemed to have also lost the desire to look at herself in the mirror.
Shafag Novruz, a Turkish stylist specializing in makeup and hairstyling, found her and decided on something simple yet enormous: to give her back an image of herself that had not existed for years.
She paid out of pocket for the dental extractions that Rita needed, gave her a manicure and pedicure, dyed her hair and added extensions, did her makeup, and applied false eyelashes.
When she finished, Rita was no longer the same woman from the earlier photos. She looked at herself in the mirror and said she felt more beautiful and more confident than she had in a long time.
Images of the transformation went viral, and thousands of people agreed on one thing: her eyes, they say, had always been beautiful; all it took was for someone to stop and look at them.