Where would I find an old fashioned penpal?

[hippychick11]

I know penpals are probably outdated now, but writing letters is something that seems to have become popular again during the pandemic. I always loved writing letters as a teenager and would love to take up the hobby again. Does anyone have any recommendations of where I could find one? I tried a few websites but a lot of them seem to be instant messaging or emails and I'm not interested in that. Thanks in advance :)

Watching with interest, I'd LOVE a penpal

Shamelessly following, I had a Penpal years ago and would love an excuse to use fancy stationary again now !

Well the Yours magazine has a page specifically for pen pals( I've got 12), these are usually for older folk though not sure whether you fit that category or not.

@Bluesheep8 I had lots as a teenager and made some amazing friends. I miss it

@realunicorn me too. I still buy writing paper, the more colourful the better :)

@longtimemarried I'm 38 but would be open to writing to anyone of any age. Never seen Yours magazines before but will have a look out for it in my local newsagent

I'd love a penpal. I used to write to my Grandma regularly until she died. I'm 36 and no one my age writes letters.

But if anyone here wants to write to me I'll write back (I'm boring though)

I wish penpals would make a comeback!

Hi OP, I'm interested too.i signed up to a couple of websites the last time I looked into this and got a lot of introductory messages from 'soldiers' and 'businessmen' I.e. catfish lol

I was just saying to my mum earlier that I wanted a pen pal! It would be nice to have a few, especially if people are living alone in lockdown

Maybe you could message each other for addresses and become penpals for each other ?

I was on a thread a few years back when DS was around 11, about penpals for kids . A few of us said we'd had penpals as children and it was a shame there didn't seem to be such organisations around today so we swapped addresses for our DC to write to one another .

Are you on Twitter? I found an American penpal via Rachel Syme, a NY based journalist. She was matching people up early in the pandemic, you just had to DM her and she sends you an address. Not sure if she's still doing it but worth a try?

The app 'slowly' is kind of good for this, you can send (in app) virtual letters to people from all around the world and it delays the delivery for how long it would take a letter to get there in real life.

I'll be your penpal I want a penpal, use nice stationery and pens and actual stamps!

@WhatWouldPhyllisCraneDo I used to write to my grand aunt too but she is in the early stages of alzheimers. I would love to write, feel free to private message me. I'm boring too but love to write :)

@Dayafterday me too. Maybe we could set up our own penpal circle on here

@Christmastree43 I also signed up to a few different sites but all I got was prisoners or men wanting marriage !

@MinnieJackson I agree. Feel free to message me if you are interested. I have heard of a few others who wanted to take up letter writing during lockdown

This is something I'd be interested in too! I used to have a pen pal from the age of 9 until my late teens. Loved getting a lovely, decorated envelope in the post!
Not sure how exciting my letters would be for anyone though lol.

Check out the post crossing website OP - it’s an amazing site to send and receive postcards. It’s main aim isn’t regular pen pals (you send and receive to different people across the world) but it has a forum where you can find people to correspond regularly with and it’s a great hobby to do the postcards too.

I miss letter writing and the excuse to buy lovely stationary.

I would absolutely love to do this too. I'm not very exciting but I think sometimes choosing lovely stationery and writing a letter is good for mental health too, kind of cathartic! I'm definitely up for a penpal!

@hippychick11 I will PM you.

If anyone else wants to me feel free to PM me and I'll buy some stamps. If you're unlucky ill even put sparkles in the envelope.

try globalpenfriends site! i also wanted a penpal and went on there. it seems like a safe site as kids use it too and you can write to people all over the world!

@Tomcullenisahero I always loved decorated letters too and used to be a major glitter fan, still love stickers though :)

@shinynewapple21 wonderful idea and maybe we could even set up our own letter writing network as its something so many of us are interested in

@Radishesandcake that sounds wonderful. I will definitely check it out. Thank you

@Persephoned I forgot about postcrossing. I was on it a few years ago and loved it.

@quarentini I used to have a huge stationary selection when I wrote letters, need to buy more

@AriNi31 I have found it really great for mental health aswell. Sometimes find it easier to put things into words than to say them aloud if that makes sense

@yummytummy I will definitely look it up thanks :)

I second the Slowly app!

I was wondering if any of you wrote letters to each other and how it's going?

Are you all aware there's a stationery section on here? . Would love an excuse to buy more stationery.

Our local befriending project for older people has a penpal matching service.

I used Facebook and happy snail Mail group. There are a few Facebook sites to find penpals on.