TAMPA, Fla. — A local social worker is using her hobby of doing special effects makeup to help young girls deal with emotional issues. It’s part of a two-program series called Trauma, Healing and Building Resiliency.

Hillsborough County social worker Destiny Sanders just happens to specialize in special effects makeup.

“One of my favorite shows ever is 'The Walking Dead,' and when that came out I started learning how to do the makeup and doing classes,” she said.

That’s why this year she decided to incorporate her love for gory and sometimes scary special effects makeup into her eight-week girls' group at Idea Hope Public Schools.

“These scars are fake, right? When we’re done, they’re gonna look really real and they are not their trauma,” she said. “That’s one thing I want them to take home when this is all said and done, and this group is finished and the eight weeks are up — I want them to understand and remember that they are not what happened to them.”

Sanders said the makeup is sometimes piled on as heavy as the topics she’s discussing with students.

“The topics we talk about are self-harm," she said. "We talk about physical abuse, we talk about sexual abuse, we talk about different things that can be considered trauma for these different young ladies or other students."

The topic of trauma is something she’s all too familiar with.

“Last year I lost my youngest brother to suicide, and in this field I have learned that not everything that is (on the) surface is what’s going on,” said Sanders.

These kinds of lessons are a reminder for students like Izabella Grafal that this is bigger than makeup.

"I think it's nice to know what some people go through,” Grafal said. “It can help me determine on a decision I can make about the issue that I’m having.”

On the day they were applying makeup during the class, Grafal’s only issue was trying to blend in her makeup and help her friend blend hers.

“We’re gonna make matching scars because we’ve shared certain things and we’re talking about doing this thing where we’re in it together for real,” she said.

Sanders said the scars created by makeup you see in the movies are designed to help the students share their real ones, and she hopes they help bring about a happy ending.