When 24-year-old Hannah Brencher moved to New York after college, she was hit by depression and loneliness. One day she felt so lonely that she wanted to reach out to someone. So she put pen to paper and started writing letters--letters to complete strangers. But these weren't sad letters about how she was feeling. They were happy letters, all about the other person, not her. She would write messages for people to have a "bright day" and tell strangers how outstanding they were, even if they thought no one else had noticed. Brencher began dropping the notes all over New York, in cafes, in library books, in parks and on the subway. It made her feel better, knowing that she might be making somebody's day through just a few short, sweet words. It gave her something to focus on. And so, the website The World Needs More Love Letters was born. The World Needs More Love Letters is all about writing letters--not emails, but proper, handwritten letters. Not traditional love letters, written to a real beloved, but surprise letters for strangers. They don't necessarily say "I love you", but they are full of kindness--telling people they are remarkable and special and all-around amazing. Brencher's initiative   has now exploded. She has personally written hundreds of letters. Last year, she did a TED talk, in which she talks about a woman whose husband, a soldier, comes back home from Afghanistan and they struggle to reconnect: "So she leaves love letters all over the house as a way to say: 'Come back to me. Find me when you can.'" And then comes another story of a man threatening to kill himself on his Facebook page, only to now be in the land of the living, with many love letters under his pillow. The World Needs More Love Letters Project works on the idea that _ ". It's about sharing positive energy, restoring confidence and happiness. There are now more than 10,000 people from all over the world joining in to write letters to the lonely and depressed, to basically tell them that everything will be okay. When feeling lonely, Brencher wrote letters to   _  .
share her sad feelings with strangers tell strangers how outstanding she was express her wish to have a bright day brighten strangers' day with kind words