202017 - I Found You on TikTok… And I’m So Happy I Did
Discovering letters2lodon, growing up with a pen pal, becoming a mum, and why letters still matter
LON-202017
Dear London,
I found you by accident.
One evening, scrolling past another video on TikTok, I stopped because someone was holding a letter, A real letter. I clicked. Then I clicked again. And before I knew it, I wasn’t on TikTok anymore. I was on your website, reading letter after letter like I used to read messages meant just for me.
It took me straight back to being a teenager.
When I was younger, I had a pen pal in America. We were strangers at first, separated by an ocean and a few time zones, but we wrote to each other for years. Proper letters. Handwritten. Folded paper, stamps, envelopes with unfamiliar postmarks. I’d wait days, sometimes weeks, for a reply. And when it arrived, it felt like a small event. Something private and exciting in a world that didn’t always feel that way.
Those letters mattered to me more than I realised at the time. They gave me space to think before I spoke. To choose my words. To say things I didn’t know how to say out loud. That pen pal became a quiet but important part of my teenage years, someone who knew me in a way that didn’t rely on being seen.
Somewhere along the way, we lost that.
Now everything is instant. Messages sent half-formed. Thoughts fired off without pause. Kids today are always connected, but I wonder how often they get to be understood. Letter writing feels undervalued now, almost old-fashioned, but I think it teaches something we’re missing. That words deserve time. That listening matters. That not everything has to be rushed.
That’s why stumbling across Letters2London felt so unexpected and, honestly, so comforting.
Seeing letters written to a city instead of a person. Watching strangers react to words they didn’t expect. Reading stories from people I’ll never meet but somehow recognise. It feels like letter writing has found a modern home, without losing its heart.
I read so many letters that night, but one stayed with me.
Letter 202001, about becoming a mother.
I read it slowly, then again. Every line felt familiar. The shock, the fear, the overwhelming love, the quiet sense that nothing would ever be the same again. I remember being a first-time mum and thinking, tis feeling has to be the best feeling a human can ever have! How something can make you feel love in such a powerful way.
That letter said everything I once felt but didn’t have the words for.
Maybe that’s the power of letters. They don’t just tell stories. They give language to feelings people think they’re carrying alone.
So thank you, Letters2London, for creating a space for this. For reminding me of who I was with a pen in my hand and someone on the other side waiting to read. And for showing that even now, in a different world, letters still have the power to connect us.
I hope more people, especially younger ones, find their way here. Because some things are worth slowing down for.
Yours,
Grace
Occasionally we shape real stories into letters, so every voice is heard.”
Source: Letter sent by writer
Photo Credits
Images are sourced to enhance the reading experience and do not depict the original writer
• Letter image: ➢ ➢ iStock.com/robynmac