Meet the Teen Spreading Kindness Across the World –One Post-it® Note at a Time

How was your summer? What’d you do?

Questions teens will be asking each other as they swing backpacks over shoulders and head back to school.

Sports…summer jobs…extra classes might be typical answers heard in the halls.

I started leaving positive messages for people on Post-it® Notes and then it turned into a nationwide movement that went viral.

This one got our attention.

And as girls involved in the mentorship platform Être learned more about Kentucky-based Stick 2 Kindness, we knew we had to meet its founder, 15-year-old Brooklynn Riley. With over 1000 motivational messages and uplifting words of affirmation left on Post-it® Super Sticky Notes to-date, Brooklynn’s summer story is one worth telling.

Below is an excerpted version of our interview with this rising leader; we had so many questions and every one of her answers blew us away.

Ê: We’re so excited to be able to chat with you today! We have to say it at the outset — we love the entire idea behind what you’re doing. Where did you get the idea to start Stick 2 Kindness? How did it all start?

BR: This honestly was just a random idea! I had been working with Giving Tuesday for a couple of years, and I had done some toy drives, but there was one Giving Tuesday I was trying to think of something extra I could do. I just thought: What if we put nice little messages on Post-it® Notes and we set them on people’s cars? I hadn’t really thought back to the idea until a couple of months later, and I was like what if we can make this something that we do on the daily not just once a year? Then, it all kind of just took off.

Ê: So cool. What are some of the reactions that you’ve gotten?

BR: I’ve gotten a lot of Instagram, DMs, emails, and people tagging me in their stories. A lot of times if I know that I’ve just put a lot of them out, I’ll start getting a bunch of DMs coming in from people everywhere. That’s probably my favorite part about it.

I’ve gotten a lot of really good reactions; people saying they were going through something personally and felt like this was something that was just meant to come to them — it’s brought me to tears. I had someone the other day who said that they were going through the last round of chemo, so these comments matter.

Ê: Something our girls have wondered about from the beginning — what did your very first note say? Do you remember?

BR: I think the very first notes started out pretty basic — like, I hope you’re having a good day or don’t forget to smile — just like little quotes like that.

Ê: Did people in your own family leave you notes like when you were growing up — maybe in your lunchbox or left on your mirror? Did it stem from anything else?

BR: Yes! My mom used to write notes in my lunchbox at school on, like, my napkin which was so great. Now that I think back to that, yeah!

Ê: Early inspiration! What’s your advice for young people following your model and doing something like this elsewhere?

BR: I think my advice to them would just be to start small…

Look for the people who you think may be having a bad day and start there. It doesn’t always have to be in some big place…it can always turn into something bigger and be on cars or in public places…but start with a place in your community that’s struggling.

Ê: And maybe as we watch big cultural moments in the country — when something great happens or something really tragic occurs — this can be a way for people to heal. Have you seen it in other countries yet?

BR: I actually have! I think maybe it was Mexico; I think they found out about from Giving Tuesday and they tagged me in another language, which was just really cool because it just showed how far the the idea has gone.

Ê: What is your ultimate goal for this? What do you hope to see five years down the road?

BR: That’s hard, but I think the ultimate goal is obviously just to spread as much love as possible because I feel like our world right now just needs a lot more of it. And there’s a lot of people who are struggling with mental health, sadly, so I definitely think breaking the stigma of having people talk about their mental health more is important.

BR: Also, getting our merch out there. I love fashion, and that’s something I’ve always kind of had a knack for, so the merch is really fun. But overall, I think just getting Stick 2 Kindness to help people help others…this would be the biggest goal.

Ê: Tell us more about the merch and who that benefits?

BR: With the merch, 100% of all proceeds are donated to Your Mom Cares, which is a nonprofit mental health organization. So that’s something that’s really close to my heart as well. They focus not only on mental health, but specifically kids’ mental health. That’s important because quite a lot of the time young people don’t feel like they can speak up about it as much.

Ê: Last question: Since we are a mentorship platform, are there any mentors or role models who have influenced what you’re doing; any who have really impacted you?

BR: Definitely! Thinking about my close family and friends, I’ve always been surrounded by good people who are very positive. So, I think that has been a part of it. There are also obviously people on social media who I see doing these kinds of things…and [I see] how they’ve been able to spread kindness all over the world.

Ê: We couldn’t love what you are doing more, and we are delighted to get to help tell your story. We’re going to throw this out for you…down the road. This is a really, really good TED Talk.

BR: Oh. *smiles* That would be a dream of mine.

Maybe this will be what Brooklynn Riley tells her friends next fall, when she’s back at school.

Maybe she’ll talk about a new TED Talk she gave, an inspirational book she authored, or a national award she earned.

But this year, she can go confidently back to school knowing that she has touched thousands of lives by putting pen to a Post-it® Note, and inspired tens of thousands globally with word of her movement and mission.

Want to join Brooklynn in spreading kindness in your community? Check out her Instagram and growing collection of trending merch. Want to share a moment of kindness that impacted you this summer? DM us here and we’ll make sure it gets back to Brooklynn.

Because Brooklynn and Post-it® Notes can help us all pay it forward and make it stick…one happy note at a time.