Genelle Frenoy knows from experience what you look like — even if you’re beautiful and physically fit — doesn’t mean a thing if you’re not happy on the inside.

Frenoy, 23, is a fashion model in New York who has appeared in national advertising campaigns for companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Reebok, Jergens and JC Penney. She has also been pictured in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Contemporary Bride.

Yet, until the past couple of years, Frenoy felt lonely and adrift, struggling to find her identity while working in a fast-lane industry where sex and drug abuse seems to be everywhere.

Things changed when Frenoy started going to church and developed a robust spiritual life. Now her view of the world is completely different, and she routinely turns down lucrative job offers for projects that she no longer feels are appropriate for herself as a Christian.

“I would say true beauty comes from the inside, knowing who you are in Christ. True beauty comes from God,” said Frenoy in a recent telephone interview from Manhattan.

“I’m going out there not for myself or for money or fame, but so I can help people and testify what God has done in my life.”

She will have the opportunity to do just that today in Lawrence at “Straight-Up Beautiful,” a conference for seventh- through 12th-grade girls in the community at Morning Star Christian Church, 998 N. 1771 Road.

The goal of the conference is to provide girls with positive role models and engage them in discussions about how to pursue their dreams, where beauty really comes from and building healthy relationships with their girlfriends and mothers.

“I would like girls to come away with an understanding of how valuable they are, and even though the world has (unrealistic) standards for women and the fame and all these things that seem so flashy and great, without God all things are empty,” Frenoy said.

Turned down offers

Even if many people aren’t yet familiar with the name Genelle Frenoy, it’s likely they’ve already seen her.

She has appeared on four covers of the popular men’s magazine Maxim, been in comedic skits on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and even had a one-line role in the recent film “Something’s Gotta Give” with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. That’s in addition to appearing in many national print campaigns, editorial shots in magazines and TV spots.

But, since Frenoy began to focus on her spiritual life, she no longer accepts some of the jobs that come her way.

She recently turned down an offer to appear in a music video for rock star Lenny Kravitz, and will no longer do revealing cover shots for magazines such as Maxim, which has an in-your-face sexual image among male readers.

“I’ve had offers where people have said, ‘You can go anywhere you want in the world, and we’ll shoot covers. We’ll pay you double.’ Unbelievable offers,” Frenoy said.

“I’ve definitely turned things down because I know now how valuable I am to God. I wouldn’t even think twice, I would never even do a job like that. There are so many girls I’m going to set an example for in this lifetime, and God has so much better in mind for me.”

Her lifestyle has changed in other ways, too. Frenoy, who admits she once was “pretty heavy into drugs,” has given that up, along with smoking cigarettes and a bad relationship with a former boyfriend. She has also gotten baptized.

These are some of the things she will share with participants at “Straight-Up Beautiful.”

“I’m going to talk about my life story and how God pretty much just saved me, took me out of this world of everything that I was in and came into my heart,” Frenoy said.

Valuable in God’s eyes

Her transformation into a Christian would not have been possible, Frenoy said, without the help of Lara Izokaitis, a 1997 graduate of Kansas University and a former KU volleyball player.

Izokaitis, 30, has been employed for seven years by the Los Angeles-based Victory Campus Ministries, doing Christian outreach work among college-age people.

Izokaitis, who, like Frenoy, lives in New York, has just signed a two-year contract with Click, one of the top modeling agencies.

The two women met in Manhattan through Morning Star International, a worldwide family of churches and ministries to which Lawrence’s Morning Star Christian Church belongs.

Izokaitis, the other featured speaker today at “Straight-Up Beautiful, became a spiritual mentor to Frenoy.

Izokaitis is a longtime friend of Pam McDermott, who has organized the girls’ conference. She is the wife of the Rev. John McDermott, pastor of Lawrence’s Morning Star Christian Church. Izokaitis has known the McDermotts for 11 years, since she was a freshman at KU.

“Lara is the one who discipled me. She supports me in my walk with the Lord. She knows my heart for what I want to do for God, and she has walked me through so much,” Frenoy said.

Izokaitis put Pam McDermott in touch with Frenoy, who accepted the opportunity to speak to girls at “Straight-Up Beautiful.”

“My dream is to become a minister to every woman in this world to let them know how valuable they are to God, and that they were made for a purpose,” Frenoy said.

“My dream is for every woman to know how amazing they are, and how much God loves them.”