Laurie DeWitt/The Gazette Valerie Turner (center), who operates Belle Etiquette & Charm, teaches skills such as makeup application and choosing a clothing color palette for young women like Shelby Sykes, 9, of Potomac and Kaytlin Friia, 13, of Damascus.

Valerie Turner believes "young ladies should look and behave like ladies." They should learn etiquette to enhance their feminine qualities.

"A first impression is a lasting one," she said.

At her school, Belle Etiquette & Charm, Turner teaches young women table etiquette, personal grooming, skin care/makeup application, fitness/nutrition, fashion image and self-image.

Turner, 42, a Burtonsville resident, holds classes at the East County Community Center and Casey Community Center in Gaithersburg. Her fascination with being a proper lady has been around for some time, she said.

"I'd watch Nick at Night and TV Land, see shows like 'Lucy' and 'Leave it to Beaver,' and think, 'Those are the real ladies,' " she said. "They dress up, do their hair, wear gloves, and they don't go out unless things are just so. I think ladies should look like that.

"These days, I see the ladies on MTV -- half dressed, shaking around -- they're not ladies," she said. "When young women dress loosely, like the artists they see on MTV and act like them, young men automatically assume that they are [loose]."

Dressing revealingly invites sexually predatory behavior, she said.

"There were more ladies in this country in the early 50s," Turner said, "and I believe if I continue doing what I'm doing, those days will come back."

It all started when one of Turner's three children joined Washington-McLaughlin Christian School, a private school in Takoma Park.

"The young ladies at the school were in uniforms, but their hair was all over the place," she said. "So I told my sister, 'Maybe I should start a charm class.' "

Turner and her sister attended Sears Charm School, run by Sears Roebuck, when Turner was 12, and Wendy Ward Charm, run by Montgomery Ward, when she was 14. Turner also attended Yvonne de Vilar Institute International d'Esthetique, in Vienna, Va., in 1987 and became a skin care/makeup specialist.

"I wanted to be a model, and always enjoyed fashion," she said. "So my parents sent me to a charm school instead of a modeling school.

"Charm school went away when modeling schools took over," she said. "But I don't want to lose sight of charm."

Much of Turner's sense of charm comes from her mother, she said.

"My mother would put on a dress, comb her hair and lotion her hands whenever she went out -- even to get butter from the store," she said. "She rarely wore pants outside, because ladies should wear dresses."

Her family would always have formal sit-down meals when she was young, Turner said.

"If I had my way, I would try to cut down on our meals at McDonald's and have more sit-down dinners at home," she said. "But I'm a single parent with three children, so it's hard for me to manage that."

She has found time to put her etiquette training to good use, though.

Turner started her charm classes at Takoma Park Recreation Center in 1991 and continued till 1993, she said. From 1993 to 1996, she held classes at her townhouse basement.

In 1995, Turner took home study courses from ICS School of Fashion Merchandising, based in Scranton, Pa., and in 2001, joined Dudley's Beauty College in Washington, D.C., to learn about advanced makeup artistry.

In September last year, Turner came back to teaching charm classes.

"My classes are usually for young ladies between the ages of 8 and 18," she said. "But I also do one-on-one with adults."

There are a lot of people interested in charm and etiquette, she said, they just don't know where to go.

"I decided to send my daughter to Valerie's school because she had a problem with social anxiety and was having trouble making friends," said Manju Potdar of Silver Spring. "And I think the biggest thing she gained out of that class is self-confidence."

Shikha Potdar, Potdar's daughter, attended Turner's charm school when she was 15.

"At first I was resistant to go to a charm school," said Shikha, now 21, "because I thought it'd teach me how to be one of those prissy little ladies."

But she ended up liking the classes,and the biggest lesson that she learned from them was that chivalry was not a bad thing, she said.

"I was a bit of a feminist, but I learned that it's OK for a man to hold the chair back for you and be polite to you," Shikha Potdar said. "It's not disrespectful, but a form of respect for the ladies."

Margo Miller of Damascus sent her daughter, Kaytlin Friia, to Turner's school because she wanted her to learn the basics of modeling.

"I think she learned a lot at Valerie's," Miller said. "She takes better care of herself, her table manners have improved, and she has a more positive self-image."

Said Friia, 13, a student at Rocky Hill Middle School, "I learned all about life at the charm school. And Valerie was great fun and a very interesting person. She didn't make it bad for you, but she made sure that she made it right."

Turner has three sons, so her longing for a daughter is fulfilled through her young students, she said.

"I just want ladies to be ladies," Turner said. "I even make my boys put on khakis, button-down shirts and nice shoes when we go to the church. They don't have to live in their raggedy jeans and tennis shoes all the time," she said.

Her sons don't always like dressing up, but they'll learn to appreciate it later in life, she said.

Although busy with her job as a billing support manager at Espire Communications in Annapolis and her charm school, one of these days Turner would like to teach her course to people who can't afford to pay for them, she said.

"I'd like to volunteer my time and offer this program, or a business etiquette program, to the local shelters," she said. "My course would help single moms or battered wives who want to join the work world."

For more information on Valerie Turner's charm classes, call 301-476-7594. The classes are weekly, one hour for eight weeks, and cost $100. The next class is scheduled to begin Jan. 19.