A note found inside the lunchbox of a 10-year-old girl who was being bullied at school has gone viral around the world.
An American father, Chris, began writing short lunchbox notes for his daughter Addie; those notes have been collected into a book that has drawn attention both domestically and abroad. Chris, a former college sports publicist, noticed changes in his daughter’s behavior and started slipping a brief note into her lunchbox every day.
After transferring to a new school, Addie faced bullying and often had to eat lunch alone.
When he saw her grow quieter and more irritable, Chris realized it wasn’t just normal adolescent moodiness. Worried that frequent moves for his job might have left her hurt, he began writing the notes to give her courage.
He didn’t keep the notes to himself. Chris started sharing them online, where readers responded strongly — many saying, even as adults, they needed to hear those words. Addie’s principal, moved by the response, urged him to turn the notes into a book.
Chris gathered the letters that helped his daughter through her 10th year and published them as Dad’s Lunchbox Notes. He added new messages so the book would speak to others, not just his daughter.
The book was featured on major U.S. television programs including The Today Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show and Good Morning America, which described Chris as “the dad everyone needs” and a true champion — a sort of Superman of fatherhood. Broadcasters in Japan and South Korean outlets such as SBS, JoongAng Ilbo, MBN, Chosun Ilbo, Korea Economic Daily and News1 also covered the story, drawing international interest.
When Chris first started writing, he says he was at the lowest point in his life. After suffering workplace harassment and the end of a contract, he suddenly lost his job and moved back to his hometown with no clear plan. His relationship with his daughter felt strained, and he found it easier to write short notes than to talk — so he began.
The notes don’t promise a roadmap to success. Instead, they offer simple guidance on kindness, friendships and self-acceptance. He tells his daughter it’s okay to dislike someone, but not to be rude; and that even if most people don’t notice your efforts, you can — and should — recognize them yourself.
Chris says Addie resembles him, and that the words he writes are the things he wishes someone had told his younger self.
He says writing the notes taught him more about his daughter — and, perhaps more broadly, about himself. In helping his daughter, he says, he helped save himself.
The Korean edition includes photographs of Chris’s handwritten lunchbox notes that weren’t in the original. The book’s design is arranged like a bright bouquet, and the paper band folds like a gift tag, making the volume feel like a present.
The lunchbox notes helped Addie get through the fraught “age 10” period, and Chris continues to write them as her high school graduation approaches. Choi Ji-young, who translated the book into Korean, said she felt as if she had become the author’s young daughter reading her father’s letters.
Readers say the short notes make them want to tell their own children the same things — and that the words were exactly what they themselves needed. Their brevity makes them memorable; some are earnest, some playful, and nearly every page offers a line that lingers.
Most Commented