Hi, I have read your reply to my letter and other people's letters. All I have to say is that you are unhelpful all you say is "tell someone" I wanted to be a model and I clearly said my parents are unreasonable but you still said "Talk to them" I feel like you do not care. 🙄
Hi there,
Thank you for writing to tell me how you feel. I always want to know if my responses aren't quite what you wanted. I thought it might be good if I explained a bit about how I answer your letters and how I hope to help young people.
I get thousands of letters every year, and I read every single one of them. Each time I read a letter I take a moment to think about what that situation must be like for that person and what advice I could give. I then look to see if I have answered a similar problem before. If it's been a long time since I spoke about that kind of problem then I will put it to one side to write a response.
When I'm answering problems I try to think about what the best advice I could give that person is. I also think about all of the other people who read my letters who didn't write in, but might have a similar problem. When I write my response I try to include things that could help you and also all of those other people. This might mean I suggest things that you've already tried because this might be important for other readers to know.
I will always try to answer your specific problem and if you feel like it wasn't specific enough to you then I'm sorry for that. What you might find is that writing to me is a starting point and that some problems might need help from lots of different places before you start to make progress. A good first step is to take a look through all the letters I've responded to before and see if there are any others that match your problem. You can use our message boards to get support from other young people and look at our information and advice pages. Childline counsellors are also always here for you, on the phone or online.
I wish I could answer more letters but I always try and pick letters I think I can give the best advice for. If I don't answer your letter then don't give up - you could try writing a counsellor an email about your problem because every private email you send will get a reply. Very few of my letters are picked for an answer but if you read through my old responses there is a good chance I have talked about a similar problem before.
I hope this letter has helped you understand more about how I answer letters that get sent to me and I'm sorry if my last response didn't help you in the way you wanted.
Take care,
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.
