&lt;!-- required files --&gt;
&lt;link href="../assets/plugins/select2/dist/css/select2.min.css" rel="stylesheet" /&gt;
&lt;script src="../assets/plugins/select2/dist/js/select2.min.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

&lt;!-- html --&gt;
&lt;select class="default-select2 form-control"&gt;
  &lt;optgroup label="Alaskan/Hawaiian Time Zone"&gt;
    &lt;option value="AK"&gt;Alaska&lt;/option&gt;
    &lt;option value="HI"&gt;Hawaii&lt;/option&gt;
  &lt;/optgroup&gt;
&lt;/select&gt;

&lt;!-- multiple selection --&gt;
&lt;select class="multiple-select2 form-control" multiple&gt;
  ...
&lt;/select&gt;

&lt;!-- script --&gt;
&lt;script&gt;
  $(".default-select2").select2();
  $(".multiple-select2").select2({ placeholder: "Select a state" });
&lt;/script&gt;