One Montreal student is leading a movement against girl-on-girl bullying at her local high school -- all with a few colourful post-it notes.
Stefania Restagno, a 16-year-old student at Laurier Macdonald High School, began sticking Post-It notes filled with inspiring quotes on the mirror of the girls’ bathroom.
Before she knew it, her small gesture of positivity spread across the school.
The bathroom mirror was soon filled with a mosaic of brightly coloured notes, written by female classmates offering each other their own words of wisdom and daily affirmations.
“The mirror loves U,” a student wrote on a yellow note.
“Just be you, the rest will follow,” said another in green.
Restagno says she knows first-hand how difficult high school can be for teenage girls and the fact that many aren’t always happy with the way they look. For that reason, she decided that the school’s mirrors would be the perfect place to post cheerful messages to her friends and classmates.
“I think it’s appropriate since this is a hub where all the girls are at,” Restagno told CTV Montreal.
Restagno said she was inspired by Caitlin Boyle, a blogger from North Carolina, who started a project known as “Operation Beautiful,” where she posted anonymous notes with positives messages in public places.
On her website, Boyle asks followers to post a note, take a picture and send it to her website.
The movement caught on around the world and Restagno decided to bring the creative project to her own school.
“The more you see the positive message, the more you’ll believe it, so you’ll help yourself with your self-esteem,” she said.
Students say the notes have created a sense of solidarity in the school.
“It’s not every day someone will come up to you and be like ‘Never stop believing in yourself,’ so when you read something like that you think ‘Wow,’” said Grade 9 student Emma-Lee Di Giovanni.
Restagno says she is glad the project took off and hopes the positive messages will continue.
“I remember one post-it said ‘Faith in humanity restored, please continue,’” she said. “That really touched me. That’s what the whole project is about.”
With a report by CTV’s Vanessa Lee in Montreal
