Dear Lauren,
Happy Solar Return! May this new year bring you more life, more love, more joy and more happiness! You’re a real life super heroine spreading love and encouragement for writers to keep their dreams alive.
I use the words Solar Return instead of birthday for two reasons:
1. Technically your mother birthed you. So please tell her Happy Birthday from me. 😁
2. You’re experiencing another trip around the sun in real time. I don’t know about you but for me my birthday is always an emotional time. It’s an opportunity to reflect on what I did with my time over the course of the last year. It’s also a magical time because it gives me the chance to dream a new set of memories, adventures and stories that I hope to create. I hope that in this new chapter you dare to dream bigger and louder than ever. See you soon.

Dear Lindsey,
Life started off rough! And it will get a lot harder if you don’t follow this list. (You know how much we love lists!)
1. Remain unapologetic with who you are and what you like! (This is critical: many people will try to tell you what’s best for you, meanwhile, most of them cannot even tell you who they are.)
2. Your body is not the first thing you sell when you choose to embark on entrepreneurship. (Actually, don’t ever sell any of your body parts. Mentally and emotionally it is going to set you back like 15 years…..ugh)
3. Learn to love money. Not the paper itself, rather all of the cool stuff we can do with it. Travel, eat great food, buy great gifts, a beautiful home, help the less fortunate, and buy great clothes for you and your beautiful family.
4. Your parents and elders were not taught to heal themselves. Continue to show them compassion, without judgement.
5. Never tone it down. People won’t like you all the time, but as long as we can look ourselves in the mirror every night and feel good, that is all that counts.
6. Don’t judge yourself for the mistakes you make. (Players f*** up!)
7. The way other people treat you is not a reflection of you. The way you choose to respond is.
8. Love is forever your greatest asset. It won’t always feel like it but there will come a time when you’ll take pride in being the most loving person you know.
9. Never stop helping people. You’re doing the work that many people run from.
10. Dance!!! Twerk, jump, scrub the ground, be dramatic. This is the only exercise we like.
11. Never smoke, drink, or do drugs. It makes your breath stink and gives you wrinkles. (Plus, not to mention these things will kill so many people that you love.)
12. Your feelings always matter. If no one listens to them, remember that there is something so much more powerful, that is listening, and you will get everything you could have dreamed of.
This last one is the most important of all. If you don’t follow this one, it will cost you your life. Well obviously not, but you will lose your mind. Then you’ll have to spend an entire year in therapy, talking to a lot of different therapists because you are not easy to please.
Lucky number 13: Stay Alive! At all costs. Never give up on you because no one else has. The world is waiting for you to show them how to do it.

I hope this helps. You know what to do with it. Trust yourself and if you ever get lost, its fine. You will always find your way back.

With Love,