Letter To My Younger Sister

December 4, 2025

Writer: Tyler Peterson

Editor: Sammy Slogoff

To my Little Sister, 

Though six years separate us—our experiences, our style, and our favorite movies—we share something unique: we were girls together. 

Now, as I close my eyes, I flip through the pages of a scrapbook of us in my mind. I can see you in hair rollers, me applying your lipstick—the smudge on your face making us laugh until our stomachs hurt. I still see you crying in my room; from the sharpness of other girls’ words and the quiet confusion of realizing kindness doesn’t always come back to you. Even then, I wanted to protect you, not recognizing that is what sisterhood most often is—a series of small rescues threaded together by laughter and tears. 

How lucky am I to have someone who carries the same scrapbook of memories? Someone who knows exactly what it's like to live inside the walls of our little brick house, to be the first taste testers for Dad’s new recipes, to fill kitchen floor with Barbies, and to decorate the Christmas tree at grandma’s house, pattering across the floor with tinsel stuck to our socks. Too lucky, I think—luck that I took for granted. 

“Don’t go into my room without my permission.” 

I’d take you with me to sleep in my dorm bed if I could. 

“Stop stealing my clothes.” 

I love that you take a part of my style and make it your own.

“I can’t talk right now, I’m busy.” 

Please don’t stop calling me, in fact, do it all the time.

Looking back, I wish I could turn those quick, impatient comments into words of gratitude. I didn’t know it then, but every slammed door and borrowed sweater was just another way of saying we belong to each other. Now, as I move into this next chapter of my life, I find myself wishing I could go back—not to change anything, but to say thank you.   

I miss you every day. 

I miss being a kid with you every day.         

?is tough. Being at a disadvantage before you can learn to walk is tough. Yet, where life poses tough battles, sisterhood is the common thread that makes it all manageable. Sisterhood gives you me to call when you're having a bad day, to steal my clothes when you can’t figure out an outfit, to listen to my records when you want new music, and to read my books when in need of a good story. Sisterhood is the magic of using my jokes, my shoulder when you need something to cry on, and a good laugh when you need it most. 

You are with me through every stage—from babies, to girls, and now women and through every chapter yet to come. Bound by blood and by experience, there is absolutely no one else I’d rather have next to me, navigating life by my side.    

With all the love in the world, 

Your Older Sister