Write a handwritten letter on a Sweet 16 — from parent to child, or yourself to your future self. We'll deliver it on the 17th birthday, when the year between feels like it contained a whole new version of you.
Sixteen is a specific age. Old enough that you feel adult, young enough that adults don't treat you like one. A driver's license, a first job, a first relationship that feels like it counts, and a version of yourself changing faster than anyone around you realizes. Sixteen is also the year most people later can't quite explain to the adults they become. It's a year of feelings that are huge in the moment and weirdly hard to remember clearly even a few years later.
A Sweet 16 letter — written by the sixteen-year-old to their future self, or by a parent to their kid — holds that year in place. You write it sometime around the Sweet 16 birthday, and you say what's true right now. Who your best friend is. What you're mad about. What you're starting to figure out. What you want seventeen-year-old you to remember about this version. What you're afraid of. What you hope you get. Then you mail the letter to us, and on the 17th birthday, it arrives.
Opening a letter from the sixteen-year-old version of yourself on the 17th birthday is a small, powerful rite of passage. You're already someone different by then. The letter lets you compare. Parents who write to their sixteen-year-old do something even more meaningful: they capture the version of their kid that disappears the fastest — the one who's half child, half adult, right in the middle of becoming. A letter delivered a year later preserves that exact halfway moment.
Three simple steps. One beautiful moment, later.
Pour your heart onto paper. Use our Letter Helper if you'd like prompts. You decide when it should be opened — 1 year or 2 years from now.
Mail your sealed letter to our PO Box. We store it in a climate-controlled, fireproof safe — untouched, unopened, waiting.
On your chosen date, we mail your original, handwritten letter with tracking. Your words arrive exactly when they're meant to.
Your letter is in safe hands
You're trusting us with something irreplaceable. Here's what we do about that.
Letters are stored in climate-controlled, fireproof safes — not filing cabinets or cardboard boxes. We treat every letter as irreplaceable, because to someone, it is.
Every letter ships with an active tracking number, so you (or the recipient) know exactly when it's on its way.
If your address changes before your delivery date, email us anytime and we'll update your file. Your letter follows you — no extra fee.
If Hold My Letter ever closes, every stored letter is immediately mailed back to the sender's return address. No exceptions.
One letter. One delivery. One beautiful moment when it returns.
Emailed on your chosen date between 6 months and 2 years out. Add physical mailing for a small fee. Available worldwide — the right choice if you're writing to (or from) outside the United States.
One-time payment
+$12 to add physical mailing (first address)
One-time payment
+$12 to add physical mailing (first address)
Physical mailing add-on: +$12 for the first address. Each additional unique address: +$2.
The original Hold My Letter experience. Handwrite your letter, seal the envelope, and mail it to our PO Box. We store it in a climate-controlled, fireproof safe until your chosen delivery date — then send it back with tracking, still sealed.
One-time payment
One-time payment
🇺🇸 Currently available for US addresses only. International shipping coming soon!
Everything you need to know, answered plainly.
It only takes 20 minutes. The moment it lands will be worth years.
12 chapters. Age-by-age writing scripts. Read on the site.