TED Talk of the Week: Love Letters to Strangers

Hannah Brencher writes letters to people she doesn't know - to give them a reason to wait by the mailbox when they need it most. Her global initiative - The World Needs More Love Letters - was sparked when she herself suffered from depression after college. Coming from a family of letter-writers, Brencher treated herself in the best way she knew how - by writing love letters and hiding them across New York City for strangers to find. Coming from the digital generation - a world of likes and texts and tweets - Brencher sees an extra value to her work. As she says: 

"The mere fact that somebody would even just sit down, pull out a piece of paper and think about someone the whole way through, with an intention that is so much harder to unearth when the browser is up and the iPhone is pinging and we've got six conversations rolling in at once, that is an art form that does not fall down to the Goliath of "get faster," no matter how many social networks we might join."

In this passionate and emotional TED talk, Brencher talks about how these letters blossomed into a worldwide effort to bring smiles and comfort to people who need a boost - in the old fashioned way. 

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