How it works
1
Write the Letter
Type it. Handwrite it. Whisper it on paper.
There are no rules. Send us a drawing, art, a photo, a poem, song lyrics.
Say the thing you’ve never said. No limits to how you express. Just truth.
2
Send It to Us
Mail your letter to: PO Box 210, Rose Bay, NSW 2029
Include a return address only if you want to receive someone else’s letter in return.
3
We Read Everything
Every letter is held, read, and honored.
Moderated for safety.
Some are selected to be shared anonymously on our selected letters page, Instagram, Substack, or read aloud in audio form.
If you do not wish for it to be shared, please include that in a note.
4
Receive Someone Else’s Letter in Reply (optional)
If you’ve sent your return address, you’ll receive a letter from someone else in exchange (not in response, but their own confession). Matched by a human, not algorithms.
NOTE: When someone includes a return address, we do not pass it directly to the recipient. Instead, we handle the full exchange – discreetly, carefully, like a postal matchmaker. New Envelopes. This preserves everyone’s privacy.
If you include your return address, we’ll ensure you receive a letter from another participant. But your details stay with us – never shared, never exposed.
story of the founder
It began with a feeling no one could name. The kind that lives in the chest, behind the ribs, somewhere between solitude and a soft longing to be known. The Lonely and the Loved was born from that place.
Started as a one-woman initiative, this project began late at night with a typewriter, a box of half-used stamps, and a hunger for slower intimacy. In a world of typing thumbs and vanishing messages – a writer, romantic, and ritual-maker began to wonder: what happens when we take our time with tenderness? When we don’t just post, but postmark?
The first letters weren’t meant for an audience. They were private gestures, never sent. Love that had nowhere to go, heartbreak that needed to become beautiful. But something shifted. The idea of strangers writing to each other, anonymously and honestly, became irresistible. What if we could exchange ache for ache, hope for hope?
So she opened a PO box. And a portal.
What followed were confessions, farewells, revelations, fragments of lives sent across oceans and suburbs. Some wrote to past lovers. Others wrote to no one, or everyone. Each letter became its own small universe; sealed, stamped, and sacred.
The Lonely and the Loved is not a business. It is not content. It is not a productivity tool. It is a quiet rebellion against the way we forget each other. It is for the tender-hearted, the overthinkers, the late-night feelers, and those who still believe in the power of ink and silence.
What started alone is now held by many – but the spirit remains the same: a letter, a stranger, and the hope that something will land softly where it’s needed most.
for the curious
Can I write more than once?
Yes. Many do.
Some people send a single letter that haunts them for years; others return again and again, tracing the evolution of their heart through the seasons. You can write as often as you like.
Each letter finds its own way through the quiet network we’re building, a living correspondence between The Lonely and The Loved.
When will you receive Your Return Letter?
Sometimes it’s a week.
Sometimes a month.
Sometimes longer.
We don’t rush what needs to unfold slowly. Each letter is matched intuitively, not by algorithm or urgency, but by feeling. Timing is part of the ritual. A delayed reply might mean the right letter hasn’t been written yet. Or it’s still on its way through weather, mood, and post.
We ask for your patience – not because we are disorganised, but because we are devout.
What are the LETTER HOURS?
We collect post on:
Sunday mornings every other week.
We read letters over coffee or candlelight.
No deadlines. No rush.
Only the pace of presence.
What can you send in?
This isn’t just for letter writers.
Send what spills out of you.
A sketch drawn at midnight.
A recipe your grandmother whispered to you.
A photograph you can’t stop returning to.
A confession you wrote in your Notes app and never sent.
A fragment of a story.
A love letter.
A goodbye.
A piece of fabric.
A pressed flower.
Anything that carries a pulse.
Baring your soul doesn’t have to mean ink and paper.
Is this project monetized or for profit?
No. The act of writing and receiving a letter will always remain free.
You simply cover the cost of sending your letter; we take care of everything else: the return postage, the PO Box, the domain, the envelopes, the time, and the love that holds it all together.
The Lonely and the Loved exists outside the usual economy, sustained by kindness rather than commerce. If you’d like to help keep it alive – to nourish the quiet machinery behind each exchange – you can visit our Nourish page.
Every small contribution keeps the letters moving between the lonely and the loved.
OUR DETAILS
PO Box 210
Rose Bay, NSW 2029
Australia
We write back, always
The lonely & the loved 