A P.E.I.-based collective that questions traditional notions of beauty has created one of the fastest growing groups on Facebook.

Beauty Vs. Industry features more than 2,000 pictures, with notes defying the norms of beauty.
(Facebook)

Beauty Vs. Industry was started by Heather Ross, a high school student in Souris, on P.E.I.'s eastern shore. Formed Jan. 4, the group had more than 6,400 members as of Thursday. In a single day this week, it gained close to 500 new members.

The site's main feature is more than 2,000 pictures of its members, mostly female, scrawled with comments about their appearance, their beliefs, and for the most part, about how they refuse to cave in to mainstream pressure to be and appear a particular way.

"The media is always after us. Magazines, TV, you'll see the pictures on the internet, sometimes even on the radio they'll say things about people, about how they're so beautiful," Jackie Skinner, an early member of the group, told CBC News this week.

"Companies are trying to sell their products to us, because without them projecting this image, they're not going to sell their products."

The group has caught the attention of UPEI psychology professor Fiona Papps, who specializes in representation of the body in the media, as well young women's experience of sexuality.

"It takes a lot of courage to challenge conventional social norms," said Papps.

"It's a really interesting glance into young women and how they perceive themselves."

Papps notes that while much of the writing over the photographs focuses on flaws, there is a real show of strength as well.

"This group has given young women a community, and that they are so vocal about needing a community suggests to me that a community hasn't existed for them before," she said.

"That's what I find problematic, that they don't have a community."

Given the popularity of the site, Ross is considering taking the idea in new directions

"As great and useful as Facebook is, it's a fad. We need to break away from it," she said.

Ross believes Beauty Vs. Industry may have potential as a standalone publication.