If you're looking for a penpal, you can either place a penpal ad or search the ads. There are lots of penpal websites, you can put  "Penpals" into a search engine to find some. I've also listed some below. Some penpal sites divide penpals into categories by sex, age or country and some are guestbooks where everyone is listed together.

  There are two types of penpalling, email (writing by email) and snail mail (writing letters by post). You can choose to do either or both, it's up to you.

 

 

When you place an ad, you usually have to put your sex, country and and age and/or date of birth. You should also say something about yourself, eg. your hobbies, favourite things and also describe the kind of person you're looking for. If you're looking for a particular type of person ( eg. from a certain country or a certain age) it's better if you state that in the ad, otherwise people who you don't want will email you and might get upset or annoyed if you don't reply because they're not what you asked for. But I don't think you have to reply to someone who has obviously ignored what you asked for. I mean, if you are 17 and asked for people aged 16-20 and someone aged 50 emails you, then they haven't read your ad or they would see that you wanted someone nearer your age and they aren't in the age group you asked for penpals from.

  When you reply to an ad, it's better if you say  more about yourself other than: "I am 16, male, from Africa, I want to be penpals" or "I'm a 14 year old girl from England. Email me back." If you don't say a lot, people won't know what to write back and might not answer you. Also it can get a  bit annoying if you ask the person whose ad you've answered for some facts about themselves, because they already described themselves in their ad.

 

 

 

Some people use penpalling as a way to scam people. Here are some scams to look out for:

 

Money- Some people ask their penpals for money, gifts or other things. They don't wait until you've been penpalling for years either, they tend to ask quite quickly, sometimes when you've only sent a few emails. I don't think they're interested in penpals at all, just in getting things.

 

Letters of invitation-Some people also use their penpals to gain entry into their country (the penpal's country). They ask for a "letter of invitation" which is basically a letter you (the person who has been asked to provide one) writes, inviting them to stay. Some of them say they won't actually come and stay  with you, but I think that you shouldn't write them one, because if they get into any trouble, you might be held responsible.

 

 

Note: I'm not talking about when you've been penpalling for a while and one of you wants to visit the other, I mean people who don't want to visit you, they just want to gain entry into your country and might ask you for a letter of invitation when you haven't been writing to each other for long.

 

No racist, homophobic or other offensive ads

No ads asking for money 

No ads not related to penpalling

 

I will remove any ads that break these rules.

Please respect them. :)