Most Americans don’t like to get advice from members of their family. When they need advice, they don’t usually ask people they know. Instead many Americans write letters to newspapers and magazines which give advice on many subjects, including family problems, the use of language, health, cooking, child care, clothes, and how to buy a house or a car.
Most newspapers regularly print letters from readers with problems. Along with the letters there are answers written by people who are supposed to know how to solve such problems. Some of these writers are doctors; others are lawyers or educators. But two of the most famous writers of advice are women without special training for this kind of work. One of them answers letters addressed to “Dear Abby”, the other, “Dear Ann Landers.” Experience is their preparation for giving advice.
There is one writer who has not lived long enough to have much experience. She is a girl named Angel Cavaliere, who started writing advice for newspaper readers at the age of ten. Her advice to young readers now appears in the Philadelphia Bulletin in a column called “Dear Angel”.