Oh, it’s not your birthday? Well, that’s awkward. Uh…

Happy birthday to us? Yeah! Today (May 25th) marks the first submission that we received and published! It’s a very awesome day for all of us here on the DHaJ Admin Team. (Well, was. I figure most of the world is already onto Saturday already. Oh well.) 

BUT the point is that we have some new announcements that we will be sharing soon. The ideas of fanart, music, etc as well as second letters after a year have been tossed around, and we should come to a clear consensus soon.

We know it’s been a while since we’ve posted anything, but we’re still so very glad to be a part of this project and to have so many people backing us up! On a related note, some people have tried to send in their letters, but only the titles are sent in. We don’t know what is happening concerning our submissions box, so we would like to suggest that you save your letter somewhere so retyping it won’t be necessary. Emailing it to us may help as well.

Anywho, I hope you all have a wonderful day; if it is your birthday, then happy birthday.

Thanks for your support guys.

~The DHaJ Admin Team

Dear John,

Letters like these are always hard to write. There is so much to say and always the possibility of the person(s) to whom the letter is addressed never seeing it. I will try my best, though, to make my thoughts comprehendible.

I only ever read Looking for Alaska because all of my older cousins were reading it during spring break two (almost three now!) years ago and I wanted to be like them (the typical younger cousin). A week later, one of my cousins introduced me to Vlogbrothers. I was fascinated by the idea of being able to “know” an author whose writing I already loved. The next day, I had to get my appendix removed. I basically spent 20 of the my next 48 hours at the hospital watching Vlogbrothers videos (that said, I did rewatch most of them because the pain killers made a lot of things hazy). When I came home, my mom had bought me the rest of your books. I read them all that weekend while I was recovering. 

As a 12-year-old, LFA was a whole other style of writing that I’d never experienced before. Most of my favorite books until that point were of the Harry Potter genre. I had just never like books that didn’t include some sort of magical world that was oh so different from my own. Looking for Alaska changed that. I don’t really know why, but from then on Harry Potter or the Percy Jackson series just weren’t enough. Of course they still had great story lines, but I started wanting something else when I read. Something more substantial that even Harry Potter didn’t have for me. John, your books have always brought that sense of a good story but they also have this other side to them that is purely literary. And they force you to think about that side. Even if there is some sort of deep literary metaphor in HP, I just don’t notice it. In all of your books though, I am forced to think about the labyrinth of life (or death), or mattering, or seeing people for who they are, or the problems that life throws at us. 

So thank you. Thank you for writing books that force me to think and that I can quote and make references to. I can only hope that one day I could be as good of a writer as you. Maybe one day, my name will be inscribed on something and concrete as a book. 

There is so much more that I could say, but I will not say it now. 

Thank you again,

Tamar

So, as you may have observed, there has been a famine in the land of DHaJ of letter submissions. Please, if you haven’t written your letter, send it in now. Also, it would be ever so helpful if word could spread more. We post any and every (relevant) letter, so don’t worry about not passing any test. (Just as long as you have Name/Anon, general location, and age).

Hope to see you all soon!

Well, your letters… Okay I’ll stop now.

The DHaJ Staff

Dear Hank and John,

Thank you for reminding me that being a nerd is and forever will be awesome. Somehow, before I discovered you, I had allowed the worldsuck to overtake me and transform me into that sad creature known as a paper person. I had come to think that I had to fit these molds: “cool”, “cute”, “dumb blonde”, and the like. I had stopped reading and listening to worthwhile music. I had forgotten how to be awesome. Luckily for me, I found you - through my secretly-harbored Harry Potter obsession that I had been hiding from my “friends” because I thought they would think I was lame. I started watching your videos, listening to your music, and reading your books. You led me to the awesome community of Nerdfighteria, and then blew my mind IRL when you came to Indian Springs on TFIOS Tour de Nerdfighting. Hank, you reminded me that there was music out there that I actually liked to listen to, and brought back my ol’ TMBG obsession, while also making me fall in love with your own music. John, you brought me back to the days I stayed up all night reading Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, and reminded me of the extreme power of literature. Together, through old Brotherhood 2.0 videos, Project 4 Awesome, Vlogbrothers, and every single fantastically awesome thing you do, you decreased worldsuck on a global scale, but also on my own personal scale. I know that probably doesn’t seem like much, considering all the world-changing success you’ve mutually encountered, but it was SO IMPORTANT to me, and I will cherish it for the whatever is the correct conceptual equivalent to forever. Basically, all I really need to tell you is that you really, truly changed my life with those 5 simple words: Don’t Forget To Be Awesome; you never do, and now, with the help of Nerdfighteria, I think I won’t either.

I want to thank you infinite times. That sounds pretty difficult, so I’ll start with just one and see where it goes from there: THANK YOU!

Best wishes!

Lily 

We apologize for interrupting your daily Tumblring to ask that any message that has not been posted yet should be resubmitted. We have one submission with all the information but no letter.

We post every letter we get. If you think you submitted one but have not seen it, try sending it again. If it doesn’t show up in a day or two, feel free to send your letter to us at dearhankandjohn@gmail.com

Thanks!

The DHaJ Admin Team

Back to your scheduled cat .gifs.

Thank You

Dear John and Hank,

I do not know the words that can express how much you two have helped me. But I can be honest. Nerdfighteria, your videos, and John’s books have shaped me into a person I want to be. They have made me more compassionate, selfless, and accepting. They force me to go outside of my comfort zone, only to discover beauty which I would have never noticed. TFiOS specifically has helped me the most because I have recently overcome a 5 year struggle with Ulcerative Colitis. John, you captured the essence of what it feels like to be the “professionally sick kid.” But more importantly, you showed me that, although it includes pain, life is worth living. So, from the bottom of my heart Thank You. And DFTBA.

Anonymous

Dear Hank and John

Hank, you’re an awesome songwriter. John, you’re an awesome author (just look at all that is TFiOS). You’re both awesome and I wanted to start out by saying that and commenting that I have never felt more at home than I do in Nerdfighteria. It really is somewhere that I can just be myself, without anyone judging me, except just saying “Yup, that’s a nerd, he’s definitely one of us.” It means so much.

I didn’t just want to write this about sentimental stuff though. I have an idea. Some people may say I’m crazy, or that it’s too much, but I feel that it could take World Suck down a lot just by being awesome, as well as raising money to TSWGO or other charities. I refer you to my first sentences, facts which all of Nerdfighteria know is true. I think we should combine your individual skills to something on a scale of awesome which the world has never known. I’m talking about Nerdfighteria- The Musical.

I know musicals are always really corny and cheesy and you’re not supposed to like them most of the time, but I think Nerdfighteria- The Musical could break that mould. What’s more, the profits could go to charity, decreasing World Suck for everyone. 

Please, just give it some thought?

Best Wishes and DFTBA

James, 17, Gateshead, UK

The Fault in Our Stars

Dear John,

“Thank you” does not even begin to cover what I want to say to you for writing TFiOS, but I have to start somewhere. That was LITERALLY the single most inspiring book reading experience I have ever had the pleasure to encounter in my 39 half years of sentience. I have no words to describe the emotions I feel. I’ll leave the writing up to you, and others who can express themselves more eloquently than I, but I just wanted to let you know the 5 or so hours I spent reading this book have undeniably changed my life in ways I cannot fathom.

I have been suffering from severe depression and social anxiety for many years now. Though those diseases are nowhere near as life threatening as cancer, they too are in the taking-people-over business. I have been letting them succeed prematurely, and though I was previously aware that I was losing my battle I was having a terribly hard time finding another way to look at the problem. I didn’t read your book and magically become happy and not terrified of people, but reading this book has certainly given me some food for thought and encouragement to reevaluate the way I think about my diseases, myself, the world around me, and the way these things all interact.

I don’t want to say that this reevaluation would never have happened without you and this book, because it probably would have…eventually. I am saying that this story came into my life at a time when I was desperately in need of something, and for this fortunate alignment of the stars that put this book in my life at this exact moment I am grateful.

So once again: Thank you. Thank you for writing such wonderful books, for making fantastic videos, for sacrificing the comfort and good health of your hand/wrist to sign all the pre-orders with your snazzy J-Scribble (mine’s red!), and most of all for encouraging me to imagine the world complexly.

-Cate

A whole bunch of awesome people! Welcome if you’ve found us through YP! It’s an honor! Thanks a ton for liking and supporting this project.

Haven’t liked our page yet? You should get it back on the first page of groups (recent activity) so that other nerdfighters can find out about it!

http://yourpants.org/groups/dear-hank-and-john/

Thanks for your continuous support guys!

~The DHaJ team

P.S. Nice pants.