Some history about my viral VOTE necklaces (and why they are so powerful)

Update (Aug. 31): My sell-out necklaces are back in stock at Etsy!

It was around 10:30 p.m. on what seemed like a pretty boring Monday night in August.

I was reading and about to go to bed when my phone sounded the “KA-CHING” of an Etsy sale.

“Oh, that’s nice,” I thought.

A few minutes later, the same sound … another sale for the same “VOTE” necklace.

Huh. Pretty unusual.

I picked up my phone to investigate … and the alerts just exploded. There was another sale for the necklace … and another 30 seconds later … and then one every 2 seconds, until they all sold out. It only took about 10 minutes before my entire inventory of “VOTE” charm necklaces were gone, sold to customers in California, Kansas, Texas, Washington, Colorado, Illinois, and more.

!!!!!!!!!!

????????

I hadn’t seen anything like this since Roanoke’s very first Harry Potter Festival in 2017, when a long line formed at my Witch Crafts of Salem VA tent. The Muggles were hungry to buy merch, and I sold out of pencil wands well before noon. This caused one disappointed child to cry, which is really not where I wanted to go with this. But anyway … it was the same energy … a total frenzy.

In the middle of the necklace excitement, I messaged my sisters … these Etsy listings were going viral. I knew the 2020 Democratic National Convention was starting that evening. So I hypothesized: Maybe Etsy was featuring election-themed jewelry on their homepage?

The mystery was solved the next morning, when my high-school pal Liz sent me a news link: Michelle Obama wore a gold “VOTE” necklace during her speech at the convention. According to news reports, the necklace was a top Google search term during the last hour of the convention. Which explains my insane Etsy sales.

Michelle Obama wore a different necklace, of course (waaaayyyy fancier!), but she shared the same simple message that prompted me to make my own VOTE charms two years ago, ahead of the 2018 midterms.

I had my own little frenzy after Trump was installed, feeling enraged and desperate to do something … anything … about the rising fascism in our country. So I started making VOTE necklaces, which I mailed to family and friends, and friends of friends, anyone who was willing to share the message.

Eventually I learned how to hand-stamp the letters into blank metal pendants, which I started selling on Etsy. The act of hammering each letter is focused and forceful — but not too heavy-handed. I’ve learned how to space out the V and O and T and E, exacting careful bursts of pressure to get the impressions just … right. The process is loud but cathartic; crafting them goes beyond entrepreneurial activism … it’s a form of therapy. Although, making and mailing 30+ necklaces within 48 hours is probably my limit.

We’re all feeling the urgency to vote now … but my appreciation for the simple act of voting goes way back, decades before the Trump era.

Gather round to hear some of the voting history that left quite an impression on me …

***

More than 20 years ago, when everyone was watching “Titanic” in actual movie theaters and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” was topping the charts, I interned on Capitol Hill as a student at George Mason University. I wasn’t very interested in pursuing a career in politics … heck, I had no idea what kind of career I wanted to pursue. I just knew D.C. was a 45-minute Metro ride away from my Fairfax campus, and I should probably take advantage of the opportunities.

I interviewed at a few different places — the office of a California congresswoman, an educational association — but I ultimately chose to donate my unpaid labor to the National Woman’s Party at the Sewall-Belmont House, a tiny museum that honors the legacy of suffragettes, including NWP leader Alice Paul, who lived and worked at this house while fighting to enact the Equal Rights Amendment. She died the year I was born, her ultimate wish still unfulfilled.

For years, I second-guessed my choice because the place seemed so …. old. Dusty. None of my peers had even heard of it. The organization was focused on fundraising to keep the lights on — trying to host events for revenue. I stuffed a lot of envelopes and tried to produce an audio tour of the house (it was not good).

I absorbed a lot of history, of course. The most eye-opening was learning how women were jailed (and force-fed during their hunger strikes) for demanding the right to vote.

And yeah, don’t feel bad. I didn’t know women went to jail for picketing in front of the White House, either. This — along with the unvarnished horrors of our racist history — was never mentioned in my social studies classes. But it happened, and I learned all about it while exploring the 200-year-old house that sits between the Hart Senate Building and the Supreme Court, in the shadows of power.

Thanks to the Obama administration, the house was designated a national monument in 2016. It’s now known as the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, which is operated by the National Park Service.

I returned for the first time in the fall of 2018, when I was speaking at a conference in D.C. I was one of the only visitors in the house … I got a solo tour with a uniformed NPS ranger, which was so much better than that amateur audio tour I recorded.

It was on this trip when I found a special piece of jewelry in the new gift shop: A silver pin in the shape of a jail door with a heart-shaped padlock.

The National Woman’s Party gave these pins to those women who were “Jailed for Freedom” in 1917; the publicity of their imprisonment and their hunger strikes ultimately pressured Congress to pass the 19th Amendment, which guarantees and protects women’s constitutional right to vote. The amendment was ratified in August 2020, exactly 100 years ago this month. Cheers to the centennial!

My internship at that old house on Capitol Hill is the reason I’ve never missed voting in an election, even the “boring” ones. I never took our right for granted.

Just as the suffragettes — or that old house — may be overlooked and underestimated, some might dismiss the power of a simple VOTE necklace.

But as an English-majoring journalist, I know the power of symbolism and the power of words. And that’s why I know a necklace with just four letters can do so much talking, for the woman wearing it … and for everyone she meets.

Voting is powerful.

We can be powerful … as individuals, and as a collective force.

Shiny amulets like VOTE charms or jail-door pins help us remember our power.

Never forget it!