We live in cynical times, but writers can "use your gifts … to illuminate the darkness in our world." You know who said that? Oprah Winfrey, in a commencement address to the USC journalism school last year.

It sounds, then, like she'd be delighted by what your daughter did and would love to hear from her. The best address to use for that seems to be her Harpo Studios office in Chicago: Oprah Winfrey, Harpo Studios, Inc., 1058 West Washington Blvd., Chicago, IL 60607.

She, of course, got her start in the media biz there in the windy city, and her production company is still based there.

For Ellen, on the other hand, it's L.A. all the way. You can write to her show's fan mail address in California: The Ellen DeGeneres Show, PO Box 7788, Burbank, CA, 91522, Attn: Fan Mail.

But why not think bigger? There's a whole section of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show's" website devoted to regular people applying to get on the air with Ellen: send.ellentv.com/be-on-the-show. Your daughter has a pretty good (and flattering) story to tell, why not try that, too?

That's just an email contact, so she'd still have to use the mailing address as well, but an email doesn't cost anything.

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