Simply put, Hannah Brencher is a writer. To get a bit more complex, Hannah Brencher is an idealist, a romantic, an inspiration to thousands and a throwback to the days when the written word actually meant something.

In October of 2010, she began writing love letters intended for strangers and tucking them away in libraries and cafes across New York City, for people to randomly discover. Soon, she offered on her blog HannahBrencher.com to write a letter to anyone who needed one. Over the next year, she mailed out more than 400 hand-penned letters. Today she runs The World Needs More Love Letters, a global love letter writing organization that harnesses the power behind social media to write and mail love letters to individuals across the globe. The company has spread across 6 continents and all 50 states.

‘[To] sit down, pull out a piece of paper and think about someone the whole way through … is an art form that does not fall down to the Goliath of ‘get faster.’—Hanna Brencher

Watch her TED Talk Video Below: