--- title: President Obama Receives Best Letter From 8-Year Old Girl description: An 8-year-old girl named Lily recently wrote a letter to President Obama informing him that "this country needs more spunk." canonical: https://time.com/4453847/president-obama-lily-letter/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-16T13:50:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:09.848Z og:title: An 8-Year-Old Girl Wrote the Greatest Letter to President Obama og:description: She thinks the country 'needs more spunk’ — oh, and some tie-dye og:url: https://time.com/4453847/president-obama-lily-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8289b179a7b71fae/6988a283fb4eacbfb488ec17/president-barack-obama-letter-lily.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Obama And Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Hold Joint News Conference In White House Rose Garden og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An 8-Year-Old Girl Wrote the Greatest Letter to President Obama twitter:description: She thinks the country 'needs more spunk’ — oh, and some tie-dye twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8289b179a7b71fae/6988a283fb4eacbfb488ec17/president-barack-obama-letter-lily.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An 8-Year-Old Girl Wrote the Greatest Letter to President Obama by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 16, 2016 1:50 PM UTC  WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 02: U.S. President Barack Obama smiles during a joint news conference with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the East Room at the White House August 2, 2016 in Washington, DC. Later this evening President Obama will host a State Dinner for Prime Minister Loong and his wife Ho Ching. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 02: U.S. President Barack Obama smiles during a joint news conference with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the East Room at the White House August 2, 2016 in Washington, DC. Later this evening President Obama will host a State Dinner for Prime Minister Loong and his wife Ho Ching. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Aug 16, 2016 1:50 PM UTC Sometimes, kids just know best. An 8-year-old girl named Lily recently [wrote a letter](https://medium.com/@WhiteHouse/asked-and-answered-this-country-needs-more-spunk-3c12647cd791#.d3lsz9cva) to [President Obama](http://motto.time.com/4438628/president-obama-feminism-essay/) informing him that “this country needs more spunk.” President Obama agreed with Lily enough to [respond](http://www.refinery29.com/2016/08/120087/obama-spunk-cute-letter-response) to her. Lily, whose father is in the Air Force, had some impressive demands for President Obama. As an extremely well-informed pre-pre-teen, she wrote, “With all the attacks, the [Zika virus](http://time.com/4451341/zika-virus-why-you-should-care/), and the wars, this country is a very sad place. Please do something fun. Wear a tie-dye shirt and shorts to something important.” The next state dinner, perhaps? Other suggestions from Lily to President Obama include taking his family to [Disney World ](http://time.com/4444723/ariana-grande-disney-world-jess-chic-youtube/)and going on a water skiing trip in the Caribbean. Lily’s requests for Obama and his family to “do something fun” also include helping others stay relaxed. She adds, “Also, please say something that will make everyone calm. You do know know how many politics worries I have.” [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ President Obama has inspired Lily enough to want to pursue politics. She said she was President Obama’s “biggest fan” and she already knows that her “back up job” is to be President. Her first choice? Cardiovascular surgeon. In his response, President Obama took Lily’s request for “more spunk” to heart. He told her, “I can tell you’ve got plenty of spunk to help keep our Nation strong!” He continued, “As long as I serve in this Office and beyond, I’ll continue fighting to ensure kids all across our country are limited by nothing but the scope of their imaginations and the size of their [dreams](http://motto.time.com/4356811/find-dream-job/).” President Obama may continue to fight to ensure kids can achieve their dream, but we definitely can’t expect a tie-dye shirt anytime soon. Read the rest of Lily and President Obama’s correspondence [here](https://medium.com/@WhiteHouse/asked-and-answered-this-country-needs-more-spunk-3c12647cd791#.d3lsz9cva). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4453847/president-obama-lily-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4453847/president-obama-lily-letter/"},"headline":"An 8-Year-Old Girl Wrote the Greatest Letter to President Obama","datePublished":"2016-08-16T13:50:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:09.848Z","description":"She thinks the country 'needs more spunk’ — oh, and some tie-dye","url":"https://time.com/4453847/president-obama-lily-letter/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8289b179a7b71fae/6988a283fb4eacbfb488ec17/president-barack-obama-letter-lily.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8289b179a7b71fae/6988a283fb4eacbfb488ec17/president-barack-obama-letter-lily.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama And Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Hold Joint News Conference In White House Rose Garden","caption":"Obama And Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Hold Joint News Conference In White House Rose Garden","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4453847/president-obama-lily-letter/","name":"An 8-Year-Old Girl Wrote the Greatest Letter to President Obama"}}]}] ```