Welcome to Letters from Grownups!
First, thank you for being here. I can’t express how excited I am that my little company might get to be part of a new connection between you and a child in your life.
I started Letters from Grownups because I wanted to solve a few challenges I was having with connecting with children in my own life. As a woman with only fur kids and no siblings, I’m definitely not a natural around kids. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know them, watch them grow, and be part of their lives.
As an entrepreneur, I keep quite busy with my day job… so the first thing I thought was, if I'm going to do something, it’s got to be simple. And as someone with ADHD, I knew it had to be something I could do at my own pace. Either all at once, or bit by bit.
What I've created is a way to remove some of the friction from doing something meaningful so that it actually gets done.
I’ve given us structure and guidance so we know what topics make sense for different ages. (Trust me… that one was really quite hard for me. I'm grateful to all my mom friends who helped me figure it out, plus, of course, the internet for lots of research.)
Here’s where I still got stuck…
I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted it to be exciting. I wanted it to be joyful. I wanted someone receiving something from me to feel connected.
I didn't want to rehearse a response. I didn't want either of us to feel stressed about replying.
So, naturally, I stressed myself out creating the letters. (Hey, I think it was worth it.)
And if you're wondering if AI wrote these, the answer is loudly and emphatically NO.
I wrote the letters myself, with a great deal of help from real adults and children who tested them. AI has its place, but it doesn't belong in how LFG letters are written.
The reason it's taken me a year to produce "letters" is because I kept getting swept away by bright shiny objects and "side quests." What started as a pretty simple idea became an enormous project involving writing, artwork, envelopes, folding paper, testing, revising, and a surprising amount of research into postage.
It all became overwhelming… and I realized that if creating the letters felt this complicated, actually sitting down to write one might feel that way to someone else.
So I tried to make it easier on both of us.
I want you to be able to sit down for five minutes, jot down your thoughts, and send something that will genuinely make a child excited to check the mailbox.
And you know what… so far, it's worked.
Why I think this matters
Here's what I've learned along the way:
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Children really don't get much physical mail unless it's a birthday card.
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They don't always get one-on-one attention from adults outside of their parents.
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They aren't always asked real questions about who they are and what they think.
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And unless you live close by, it's surprisingly easy to lose touch with the children in your extended family or circle of friends.
Whether you don't know what to say, feel awkward around kids, live far away, are ridiculously busy, or simply want to keep in touch in a more meaningful way, I created LFG for people like us.
And I don't want it to become one more thing on your to-do list that makes you feel guilty.
LFG isn't about guilt. It's not about obligation.
It's about making it easier to build a real relationship over time.
Not trying to predict the future, but I think once you get your first letter back from a child, you're going to feel that rush of excitement. You'll know it isn't a bill or an ad sitting in your mailbox. It's something from a person you care about, written just for you.
$2 bills. What's that about?
This is one of my favorite parts!
When I was a little girl, getting a $2 bill was a big deal. They were unusual, a little mysterious, and somehow felt more special than ordinary money. I always thought they were worth saving.
I wanted to bring back a little bit of that excitement.
That's why I decided to include $2 bills as part of the Letters from Grownups experience.
When I send my letters, I tell the child it's real money. Yes, they can spend it. They can buy themselves a candy bar, save it for something special, or tuck it away somewhere and start a collection.
Two dollars doesn't go very far these days, but that's almost beside the point.
Maybe the child spends every single one. Maybe they save them all. Maybe they become the kid who proudly shows everyone their collection of $2 bills.
Who knows?
I just think it's a fun little tradition to share. And maybe, years from now, they'll see a $2 bill somewhere and remember getting letters from you.
I still have all of mine.
Starting to feel overwhelmed? Meet Ryder!
Because apparently creating an entire company around making letter writing easier wasn't enough, I also created Ryder.
Ryder is my carrier pigeon friend and is a free writing companion to help you when you get stuck. He's there for when you need to work through those "what do I say" moments. His job is to make sure LFG isn't turning a five-minute activity into a 45-minute project.
Some things you might want to know… yes, I'm still writing…
I should probably tell you that Letters from Grownups is a very small business.
And by very small, I mean it's me, my husband, and four dogs (ahem, I mean, furry editors and endless distractions).
Everything is hand-assembled by us here in Corpus Christi, Texas. And yes, the boxes are hand-painted by yours truly while standing in my garage.
I've spent more hours than I can count writing letters, testing ideas, folding paper, figuring out envelopes, and trying to make sure everything works the way I imagined it.
The letters, artwork, and all those little details have been created with a tremendous amount of human thought and care. Have I used AI and digital design tools along the way? Of course. They're useful tools. But the ideas, the writing, the decisions, and the occasional overly enthusiastic creative choices are all mine.
And because this isn't some enormous factory operation with a team of people checking every detail, there's a chance you'll find a mistake. If you find one, please tell me. I genuinely want to know.
I'm still learning, still making improvements, and very grateful that you're here.
Please keep in touch!
If something makes you laugh, I'd like to know. If a child replies with something that completely catches you off guard, I'd like to hear about that, too.
Some of the best improvements I've made so far have come from the adults and children who've helped me test these letters. You can email me directly at info@lettersfromgrownups.com.
So thank you for taking the time to get to know my little business.
Whether you're ready to send your first letter or you're still figuring out what this whole thing is about, I hope you'll stick around. Follow me on Facebook or Instagram.
Time to wrap this up. (Yes, finally.)
More than anything, I hope these letters help you get to know each other in ways you might not have otherwise. That you discover shared interests, learn surprising things about each other, share a few laughs, and genuinely look forward to hearing from one another.
I want your first few letters to become the beginning of a tradition. Maybe you'll keep writing to the same child year after year. Maybe you'll discover there are other children in your life you'd like to know better. Maybe you'll give or recommend LFG to someone who could also use a little help.
Let’s face it. Keeping in touch isn’t going to get any easier. We're all busy, distracted, and surrounded by ways to communicate, yet somehow it’s becoming easier to get disconnected from the people we care about.
Let LFG and Ryder help you send more than a text.
My very best,
Virginia