Faith wrote the letter before deciding whether anybody should hear it
Faith was 19 and had heard the earlier letters on the show.
She sat down intending to write one just for herself.
The process turned out to be more therapeutic than she expected.
Writing events in order made experiences which had felt jumbled in her head easier to understand.
Only after finishing did she decide to send it to Radio 1.
The show warned listeners that the letter contained difficult topics before Faith began.
Her younger self would find the right friends
Faith told the ten-year-old version of herself that childhood could feel lonely.
Her mum was not around and she did not have many close friends.
That would change.
At 11 she would meet Molly and other people who would still be important years later.
The letter repeatedly reassured her younger self that feeling isolated at one age did not mean she would always feel that way.
One Direction would lose her to indie music
There was one piece of news ten-year-old Faith would have found almost impossible to believe.
One Direction would not remain her favourite band forever.
As she grew up she would discover indie music and become obsessed with gigs.
Music would eventually become more than entertainment.
It would give her identity, community and something to build work around.
Scott and Chris loved the detail because it sounded exactly like the sort of fact a ten-year-old fan would reject as completely impossible.
Bullying would not remove her worth
Faith had experienced bullying and ableist comments connected with disability.
Her letter told her younger self that other people’s words could be cruel without becoming true.
She would create an anti-bullying film because she did not want other people to feel the way she had.
The letter also addressed a later experience in which somebody pressured her physically despite her saying no.
Faith reminded herself that she had said no, that what happened was not her fault to carry, and that she would move forward.
A Radio 1 presenter would help start a new path
In February 2020, listening to Jack Saunders inspired Faith to start a music blog.
Jack even shared her first post.
From there she began writing for other publications.
That achievement became one of the clearest messages to her younger self.
People might doubt her.
She should not join them.
Faith ended by reminding herself that she had survived everything she had listed and was still moving forward.
Scott and Chris were amazed by how much she had already lived through at 19.
Radio 1’s toilets became heritage sites
Elsewhere in the programme, the team received the devastating news that the toilets nearest their studio were being demolished.
Scott had used them for years.
So had a remarkable number of famous guests.
The toilets had become part of Radio 1’s invisible backstage history.
Scott and Chris began recalling celebrities and strange moments associated with them and half-jokingly treated the demolition as the destruction of a cultural landmark.
After a week of letters about life-changing events, the show was still perfectly capable of becoming sentimental about a BBC toilet.
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