In the weeks leading up to Election Day, a group of women are organizing online to flood their communities with pro-Kamala Harris messages — not yard signs or flyers, but sticky notes.
The idea is simple: take sticky notes, write messages and place them anywhere women can see them – bathrooms, the back of tampon boxes, bathroom mirrors, the gym.
The messages vary slightly, but a typical message reads something like this: “Woman to woman: No one is seeing your voice in the election. Vote Harris/Walz.”
No one really knows who started the trend. But women across the country told NBC News they were inspired to share ideas, advice and photos of each other’s messages for inspiration through social media, particularly pro-Harris Facebook groups.
A spokesman for the Harris campaign denied the campaign was involved in the initiative.
“I gave advice to someone when they said, ‘I don’t know where to put it,’ so I said my favorite thing is to put them in tampon boxes, birth control boxes, diaper bags, [that] kind of,” said Susan Visser Saez, 61, of Bella Vista, Arkansas.
Donna Savage, 76, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, said, “I’ve been in a few bathrooms today and put them in every stall,” plus bathroom mirrors.
Liz Nace, 81, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, always keeps sticky notes in her purse, handing out pro-Harris messages in stores and restaurants to “make up for voting for Trump in 2016.”
The first time he recorded was with a group of old friends who used to call themselves “Biden Friends”. Now calling themselves “La Las,” after the last syllable of Harris’ name, they meet every Tuesday to watch webinars for Harris supporters.
Nace doesn’t wait to meet La Las to write his sticky notes. She said that when she has a few minutes to spare, she writes messages on sticky notes to throw in her bag when she goes out.
“I live in a very red state and I know women who do what their husbands say and it’s very sad,” Nace said. “And so if we can vote for someone who has some fears, it would be good for them to know when they vote that no one knows how you voted.”
Women in Republican-dominated districts shared that writing sticky notes was a way for them to get involved politically without facing potential backlash.
Kelly Johnson, 47, of Kansas City, said she and other Kansas Democrats talked about being liberal in a red state on their Facebook page. Some women in the state “are afraid to vote Democrat because their husbands or other family members vote Republican,” she said.
She noted that sticky notes have led to women participating in politics “without feeling any repercussions or fear”.
Much of the organization takes place online in Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members. One of the groups was named in response to a comment from the Cat Ladies for Kamala Harris group, which has more than 110,000 members. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, targeting “childless cat ladies”.
Visser Saez said he spends “easily eight hours” each day volunteering as a Facebook group administrator.
“We have the ability to use anonymous posting in our community group so people can talk, and what we’ve found is that a lot of wives are afraid to vote against how their husbands vote,” she said.
Women started talking in online group chat rooms about “getting the word out to women that they don’t have to vote the way their spouse does.”
Some women participating in the trend decided to make the process easier by ordering sticky notes with compiled messages to spread them faster.
Kelly Callaway, 54, of Lino Lakes, Minnesota, ordered the sticky notes and estimates she posted more than 200.
“I have them in my purse. I take them everywhere,” she said. “I have a box of them in my car. And whenever my tablet is running low in my purse, I charge it.”