Don’t know where to find a pen pal? You came to the right place! I’ll go over on here all the places you can begin your pen paling journey.
*Note: This post contains affiliated links from which I will earn a small kickback. Thank you for your support!*
What is Pen Paling?
Pen paling is a fun creative activity meant to forge meaningful connections with new people around the world. If you’re looking to learn about new cultures, try your hand at practicing a new language, or simply want to make a new friend, this is the hobby for you!
Pen paling can also be very creative in terms of decorating the envelopes and letters themselves. There are whole communities based around creating beautiful snail mail. You can find inspiration for crafting pen pal letters below.
Why Pen Pal?
Because it’s awesome! But really it is.
- Connection: Forge meaningful relationships with people all over the world, all from the comfort of your home.
- Creativity: Take your imagination to the sky by inventing new ways to send the craftiest mail as possible.
- Filling Your Mailbox with Happiness: Instead of just receiving bills, you’ll get happy mail! Open up your mailbox to receive new letters with a smile on your face.
Find A Pen Pal: Websites
Finding a pen pal online is easy, I promise! Here I’ll go over a list of sites where you can start to find a pen pal.
- Global Penfriends: This is a great site for you to start on. This is where I found my first pen pal and I’m still writing her three years later! You can start a profile for free and talk to people with their secure messaging system until you feel ready to exchange addresses.
- PenPal World: This site is similar to Global Penfriends where you can find people with similar interests and get to know them a little before giving out your address.
- Geek Girl Pen Pals: This site started in 2013 and is different from the others listed in that you get paired with a pen pal after filling out an application. Each month they do a new round of pairings so you can still get more than one pen pal if you want.
- The Reading Residence-Bring Back Paper Blog: This blogger creates fun monthly activities for all papery crafts! Activities include finding a pen pal, postcard exchange, stationery swaps and more.
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Find A Pen Pal: Social Media
You can easily find pen pals on social media as well! I started off with the websites listed above, but then I found many more pen pals on instagram and I actually prefer to find new friends there now.
- Instagram: There is a large happy mail and journaling community on Instagram that is an absolute joy to be a part of! See everyone’s new creative ways to make happy mail and connect with new people. Then you can start DMing people to find some pen pals! You can find people of all ages in this community.
- Facebook: Facebook has pen paling groups as well! You can search through facebook groups or the one I have linked is the group for the Bring Back Paper blog. People ask for new pen pals all the time on here. This age group tends to be more in the 40+ years range, but there are all ages on here as well.
I found a Pen Pal, now what?
Start writing! Usually you agree on who will write the first letter and then go back and forth from there. But what do you write in your first letter, you ask?
Tell a little bit about yourself. Age, family, career, pets, interests…that sort of thing. You can tell a story of something that happened to you recently. Ask questions, so your pen pal has some things to respond to.
You can also include little extra things in your letter like photos, mail tags, a music playlist, Q&A sheet…check out the post linked below for more ideas.
You can use pen pal printables too on Etsy. I have two pen paling bundles, perfect for beginners, so you can write your first letter, tell a little about yourself, fill out a profile of info for your pen pal, keep all your pen pal addresses in one place and even track when you send a receive letters!
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Find other Pen Paling Posts:
- Postcrossing: Why You Should Join
- Mail Art With Me: How to Decorate an Envelope
- Fandom Mail Art: Harry Potter & ATLA
- Follow Me On Youtube
Archive Dive:
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