Dear King,

Once upon a time there was a princess named Stephanie. She lived alone in a castle. She had everything she could dream of. Her father the king always gave her anything she requested of him, but was never around. She twirled around in her lovely dresses and sparkling crowns, sang in the biggest room of the castle and listened to her voice echo off the walls, ate good food, read good books... But she was always alone. She never identified herself as lonely, but it was, in fact, what she was. She longed for friendship--just someone to talk to. But a shyness that never went away kept her from talking to her old friends, who she always assumed were off at grand parties that she wasn't invited to, having a wonderful time talking to people.

Her loneliness made her wonder often if something was wrong with her. She knew she was shy, but she didn't see any way out of it, and so looked to other things that might be wrong with her, such as her looks. Stephanie was not a beautiful princess. She was rather plain, except when she enhanced her looks with makeup. But she rarely did that because she felt like she didn't have anyone to impress.

Stephanie was fairly comfortable with herself. Being her only companion for so many years, she knew herself rather well. But there were things she purposefully looked over and didn't acknowledge. She justified everything she did that in her heart she felt was wrong--including not going out and making friends--by saying, "I'm just like that" without looking into it a great deal and seeing if she should change.

She had heard what a kind, loving king her father was, how he ruled his kingdom with a truly caring hand. For a while she rested in knowing her father was kind and loving, even if she didn�t see it--or him--herself. But eventually she got tired of believing in a person she'd never seen and looked for other ways to fill the hole inside her, and so began an endless chase. She went to new places. She tried wearing makeup and jewelry and buying fancy clothes. She tried building relationships with people she had never met, via letters and long-distance conversations. Stephanie wanted badly to be noticed, to be liked, to be acknowledged, but nothing worked. What she needed was real flesh-and-blood friends her own age, who could relate to her, and she had no idea where to begin to find them.

So Stephanie is still on that chase. She's looking for real friends. People who really care about her the way she is. She doesn't know where to find them. Please help her.

-A subject

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