A big thank you from Germany

Comment:

I’m 23 years old and I’m from Germany. I don’t have a question regarding your work or anything, I just wanted to tell you how awesome your work is. I’ve started reading Alice when I was 8 years old, when I received one of the first books of the series as a gift. And then I got a new book every christmas. I grew up with Alice and she taught me, that I’m not alone with my problems and my worries growing up. Every other children’s or teen book is about girls or boys who have something special about them. But Alice was so refreshingly normal. She wasn’t the prettiest of her friends like Pamela, she wasn’t as prude as Elizabeth (in the beginning), or didn’t have obvious talents. Though I’m sure (and I know) that her friends had their own problems, Alice was always the one who saw herself as normal and not special, even though she is. Losing her mother was hard for her, but that just led her to even searching more for her true self and her own values.
She was the one I could identify with, she made the same experiences I did, and went through the same problems I had.
Mrs Naylor, thank you for your work, for showing me I am normal, and for encouraging me to be myself.

Phyllis replied:

It was so wonderful to hear from you.  We are all special in that there is only one of us in the billions of people in this world, but we don’t have to have a special ability in order for someone to love us and for us to like ourselves.  I think the happiest people are those who accept themselves, and others, for who they really are.  I’m so glad that the Alice books were meaningful to you.