Aaron Sorkin Writes Sweet Father’s Day Letter To His Daughter, Sort Of Admits He’s Screwing Up

Aaron Sorkin may have caught a lot flack for his depiction of ladies in The Social Network, but in an open letter to his young daughter Roxy, the father suggests that he’s quite attuned to at least some of the plight of growing up female. More specifically, raising his daughter in a hotbed of body issues, hyper plastic surgery, wealth obsession, and all within the shadow of the ever looming entertainment industry. As a Los Angeles native, I made it out pretty well-adjusted so I guess it’s possible for young girls.

In a partnership with Lean In and TIME, Sorkin pens a long Father’s Day letter about the baby he and his wife ultimately lost, before Roxy was born, due to umbilical cord strangulation. He recalls the nurse’s instructions after she was born, the names he originally wanted for her, and why he finally settled on Roxanne from the heroine in Cyrano de Bergerac. 

Then he gets to the following parenting confession, which as #firstworldproblems as it is, is still every bit worth noting:

You know me well enough to know there’s probably a point to all this that I could have gotten to quicker.  Most of the world’s parents would give anything to trade their worries for my worries. After all, you’re healthy. You have food to eat and clothes to wear. You live in a nice house in a beautiful neighborhood and you’re getting a first-rate education. If you want to go to college all you have to do is get in and the rest is taken care of. But the thing is, outside of Saudi Arabia I’m raising you in possibly the world’s worst place to raise a young woman. I’m raising you in Hollywood.

My father isn’t an A-list director but being a little girl in Los Angeles is nothing short of the flipping Twilight Zone. It’s everything they say it is — and then some.

God’s speed and good luck, Sorkin.

(photo: Visual/WENN.com)