Harper Provides A 'Platonic Hug On Paper'

The second book from CSI: New York's Hill Harper (Dr Sheldon Hawkes), Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny, now offers advice to young women in a more affordable paperback form.

After penning Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny, Harper found out that young men were not the only group in need of guidance. "[W]omen would come up and ask, 'What about us? How come it is just for young men?'" Harper explained to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution while promoting Letters to a Young Sister's paperback release. "I realized how little positive male interaction a lot of these young women had. The book is a platonic hug on paper."

The actor discovered that writing a book for young women was very different than writing one for young men. "This book ended up being 278 pages, and the male book is 196 pages," Harper shared. "Young women are certainly much more complex than young men. For example, for a lot of young men, if they are doing well, they are doing well across the board. For young women, they may be doing well in school but their self-esteem isn't intact."

Letters to a Young Brother featured contributions from successful and famous men, and Harper got similar contributions for Letters to a Young Sister from influential women. "Some of them are my friends, and I asked them to do it," he explained. "Gabrielle Union has been my good friend for years, and I knew she had an extremely compelling and powerful story to tell." Letters to a Young Brother included an excerpt from President Barack Obama, and his wife offered her insight for Harper's second book. "President Obama contributed to the first book," Harper explained, "so it was only natural that first lady Michelle Obama would contribute to Letters to a Young Sister."

The original interview is from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Letters to a Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny is now available in paperback from Amazon.com and other retailers.

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