Thread by @hughweber

So, I promised an exciting update from Emerson - my 11 year old - and today is the day.

Many of you know the back story, but in case you don’t...

Emerson likes to write letters. Lots and lots of letters. And, she likes to decorate the envelopes so people know how much time she puts in.

She decided to send a letter to Doug, our mail carrier, just to say thank you. She included a joke about elephants and mentioned her love of Taylor Swift.

Doug told his supervisor, Sara, who shared it with all of the postal workers in the western US.

They were touched by her note.

They decided to write Emerson.

And, their boxes of letters blew our minds.

Over 25 million of you got involved when we shared the story on Twitter. We read hundreds of your replies while laughing, crying & feeling deeply connected with so many of you.

Many of you wrote letters, too. Thanks for that.

https://twitter.com/hughweber/status/1256731692611571712?s=20

The press found out. We did a lot of interviews. @katiecouric & @kerrywashington found out. Cue an avalanche of RTs. Senator @ewarren sent Em a note & @johnkrasinski shared it on @somegoodnews. After that there were so many comments that we stopped checking Twitter for a bit.

Then, one day, in the midst of recording #Folklore , @taylorswift13 picked up her pen and found her wax seal and set Em a care package.

We shared the story with all of you and found out just how many Swifties there really are. (And, we love you all.)

All of that was hard to get our minds wrapped around. We really can’t thank you for all of the love you’ve shared with us. With Em. With Doug. With the @USPS.

But, you’re here for the latest update, right?

Before we get to that, we need to go even further back. To Em’s fourth grade musical over a year ago…Mary Poppins.

Last year, Em had to write a bio for the musical program. She mentioned that she hoped to one day be a published author.

You can see where this is going…

Around the time Taylor's letter arrived, we got contact from a most extraordinary woman named Kristen. She’s a publisher at @HarperChildrens. But, she’s also a mom who wants the world to be more grateful, hopeful and connected.

It's no exaggeration to say that we adore her!

She & her incredible team had seen the story that so many of you shared & wanted to share Emerson’s story as a way of recognizing all of the essential workers we see everyday and so many that go unseen.

I’ll spare you the details but let me just say there was a lot of squealing!

They introduced us to an amazing illustrator named Jaclyn Sinquett. She started sketching before there was even a book.

As Emerson tells it, “Jaclyn included everything that makes me special from my curly hair to my roll of stamps to my jar of markers!"

For weeks, we've been seeing sketches and paintings of the pages of the book from Jaclyn.

This morning, as we prepared to share the news, Emerson said, "She’s my illustrating soulmate. And, I can’t wait for you all to see how talented she is."

So, today, our exciting news is...

As Emerson would say, imaginary drumroll please…

Sincerely, Emerson!

It’s going to be available for everyone on January 5th, 2021. Emerson wants everyone to know that it will even be in Target. :)

You can pre-order it today by going to SincerelyEmerson.com!

We'll be sharing a lot of updates here:
Instagram.com/SincerelyEmers…
Facebook.com/SincerelyEmers…

We believe now is the moment that the @USPS needs us all most of all.

We’re going to use the book as a way to organize as many letter writers, young and old, to join us in supporting postal employees and all essential workers.

#DefendThePostOffice

Thanks again to all of you that took the time to share Emerson’s story. We’ll be forever grateful to all of you.

And, just as a little reminder, anyone can write a letter and we hope you’ll take time to write someone you love.