Paige Leigh Kitson is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever met. She nominated herself for this makeover — saying it was time to re-evaluate her "uniform" of jeans, black tank, black hoodie and flip flops. And it was the exuberance of her letter — which contained the words "please, please, pick me!" — that led me to chose her for this project.

I suspected Paige would make the project more fun for everybody, suspicions she confirmed when I called to notify her that she had been chosen.

"Oh, my gawd, this is the best day ever!" she exclaimed. Then: "Oh, you're going to make me pee!" and "You're making my heart palpitate!"

Needless to say I was tickled by her enthusiasm, which it turns out, isn't a new thing for her.

"I used to work for a suicide hot line," she told me. "If you called 1-800-suicide in the middle of the night you would get me, and when I was going through the training they were like, 'Could you sound a little bit less excited?' So I've learned to tame myself when I need to."

Paige, 32, works as a shift supervisor at a local homeless shelter — which she calls "the best job in the entire world." She is originally from Washington, D.C. where, she said, "Everyone has to look exactly the same, and if you don't conform then you're not going to be taken seriously."

In junior high school she wore "headbanger attire": black concert T-shirts, torn jeans and either Doc Martens or Converse All Stars.

"Then, maybe in 11th grade, I started dressing more hippie-grunge," she said. "So it was always like a black tank top — which has remained a theme through out my adult life — flannel shirt, jeans."

Paige went to college on an organic farm in rural Vermont where she wore Carhartts, and (you guessed it) a black tank top. "And throughout high school and college I would always wear Birkenstocks," she said. "Once I started wearing those Birkenstocks I just never went back to wearing a close-toed shoe. I have a specific list of things I look for in a job, and being able to wear open-toed shoes, specifically flip-flops, is a requirement."

Paige speculated aloud that she must "have claustrophobic feet or something," but said she would be willing to wear another style of foot wear, even a boot, if it made her look "really sexy."

Paige said she'd like to look "hip, funky and casual," but needs something appropriate to wear to her job at the shelter, where she spends most of her time.

"I take a class at the community college and we'll go out to dinner every now and then, but I'm not really hip to the social scene these days," she said. "Probably because I work at the homeless shelter and I deal with a lot of people with substance-abuse problems, so like going to the (bar) is not something I would be into because I fell like I'd be setting a bad example for our guests."

As I discovered when I met her, Paige is quite lovely. She has big green eyes, a beautiful smile and an hourglass figure. But there is no disputing the fact that she needs a new look.

"Looking at myself now, there are bleach stains on my jeans, there is a hole in my shirt, and my feet are black, which is fine," she said. "No one here judges, the folks I work with are just phenomenal. But I feel like I'm 32 and I probably need to dress slightly more professionally."

Tune in next week: We'll shop for an outfit that Paige can sport while enjoying some of her favorite activities: drinking coffee, scoping out cute ambulance drivers and schmoozing with the police and the homeless.