If you’re seeing reminders to wear red tomorrow, it’s almost certainly for National Wear Red Day, a yearly event held on the first Friday of February to raise awareness about heart disease in women. The day is part of American Heart Month and serves as a visible, collective reminder that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, killing roughly 305,000 women in 2023 alone.
What National Wear Red Day Is About
National Wear Red Day is the centerpiece of the Go Red for Women campaign, a joint effort between the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The campaign launched in 2003, when the NHLBI introduced the red dress as a national symbol for women and heart disease awareness. The idea is simple: wearing red makes the invisible visible. Heart disease in women has historically been underrecognized, undertreated, and understudied compared to heart disease in men.
The numbers back up why this matters. Over 60 million women in the U.S., roughly 44% of all women, are living with some form of heart disease. About 1 in every 5 female deaths is caused by it. Despite those statistics, many women don’t consider heart disease their biggest health threat, and that gap between perception and reality is exactly what the day aims to close.
Why Heart Disease Looks Different in Women
One of the most important messages behind Wear Red Day is that heart attacks don’t always look the way people expect, especially in women. The classic image of someone clutching their chest applies more reliably to men. Women tend to experience a wider variety of symptoms and often present with more of them at once.
Women having a heart attack are more likely to report nausea, vomiting, dizziness, shortness of breath, and jaw or neck pain rather than the stereotypical crushing chest pressure. Pain may show up in the upper back, left shoulder, left hand, or abdomen. Women also tend to have warning signs in the days and weeks before a heart attack that are easy to dismiss: unusual fatigue, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and shortness of breath. More than 50% of women experienced disrupted sleep in the four weeks leading up to a heart attack, compared to about 32% of men. These early signals often get attributed to stress, aging, or poor sleep rather than recognized as cardiac warning signs.
How To Participate
The most straightforward way to participate is to wear something red. A shirt, a scarf, a pin, red lipstick, anything visible. The point is to spark conversations and make heart health impossible to ignore for one day. Beyond wearing the color, you can share heart health information on social media, set up a fundraising page through the American Heart Association, or donate directly to fund research and education programs.
Workplaces, schools, and hospitals often organize group events where everyone wears red together, creating photo opportunities that amplify the message. If you’re looking for a way to get involved beyond the clothes, the Go Red for Women website offers resources on understanding your personal risk factors and practical steps to reduce them.
Other Reasons You Might See Red
While National Wear Red Day in February is by far the most common reason you’ll be asked to wear red on a specific day, red is also associated with a few other awareness causes throughout the year. World AIDS Day on December 1 uses red ribbons as its symbol. Red Nose Day, typically in late May, raises money for children living in poverty. If you’re seeing the call to wear red in early February, though, it’s almost certainly about heart disease awareness for women.