Dear Me - A Letter to my Sixteen Year Old Self

They say hindsight is a great thing. There is a scene in Shawshank Redemption where Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding played by Morgan Freeman Is up for parole for the umpteenth time and he talks about his wayward years. What is so touching about his speech is the way he talks to his teenage self and gives himself some crucial advice on life choices. This is a really poignant scene which results in him being granted his parole.

Dear Me: A Letter To My Sixteen-Year-Old Self is a book that contains letters by high profile personalities written to their younger self. The idea is to provide the younger self with advice and tips that would avoid them making the mistakes they did. The letters vary in many ways from length ie some letters are two pages while some are just two liners. Some letters are typed while some are hand written while some are one lined paper and some on plain or even a post it note. Some of the advice is downright frank, a lot of them are funny, some are sad and some of them are pretty confessional. From Peter Kay telling himself to avoid stone wash denim, Jackie Collins advising herself to stay away from drugs and Patsy Kensit urging herself not to marry every rock star she meets.  The forward is written by Elton John who has indeed lived a far from boring life both adult and adolescent, so it is very fitting that he should be the one to introduce the book.  

Dear Me is a lovely, gorgeous book which is also inspiring and touching. It would make a perfect gift for a teenager or even adults. I totally loved reading it.

Check out the Dear Me Letter blog and you can join the Facebook fan page here. 

You can buy the book from amazon and every £1 goes to the Elton John Aids Foundation.