During the ‘Teeth’ exhibition, families shared their letters to the Tooth Fairy. Children have lots of questions about who the Tooth Fairy is, what the Fairy does with all the collected teeth and (most urgently) whether the Fairy will still leave a coin if the tooth has gone missing.
![Letter written in blue ink on plain white paper. Reads: To the fairies. On Friday at school my tooth came. I think I swallowed it. Please can you get 50p. Love, Caroline Vile. Thank you. XXXXXX](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fd0c9b456-87d2-4a61-acce-1cb8f4ca0b8e_34+tooth+fairy.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Caroline found this recently at her parents’ house. She had written to the fairies because her tooth had come out and she’d swallowed it and was worried that she wasn’t going to get paid by them! The letter was from some time in the mid-1980s and she was probably about seven or eight.
![Letter written in blue biro on plain white paper. Reads: To my dear Tooth Fairy. Where the incident happened: I was walking into school and I had an itch, so scratched my chin and my tooth flew out like a rocket! All on my ninth birthday. This is my tenth tooth I've lost, but luckily it didn't bleed at all, so I got lucky there! In view of the fact that it was my birthday and it was one of my molars, I believe I should get double the normal for a molar. You write here. Love from Libby. P.S. I love you. xxx](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fd86e21bf-6e4b-4c9d-80cd-818f8ed429fb_31+tooth+fairy.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Should Libby (aged nine) get double the normal amount from the Tooth Fairy for losing a molar on her birthday?
![Letter written in pencil on pale pink paper. Reads: To the Tooth Fairy. Please may you tell me your name please. Just to say my name is Grace. Please write your name here.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F600ea99f-642c-45ea-96ef-dd91abfcb203_32+tooth+fairy.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Grace is six and has had a wobbly tooth for six weeks. She longed for the Tooth Fairy to come and had many detailed discussions with her relatives about her name, age and clothes. The day her tooth finally came out, she immediately wrote this letter and set her room out ready for the long-awaited arrival.
![Note written in Danish in red pen on plain white paper. In English it reads: I think you should just take it.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F048f2db7-64ac-4f34-b12b-43fafa85cfc6_33+tooth+fairy.jpg?w=877&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
When losing tooth number eight, Martha (aged seven) wanted to keep it. For some reason, she changed her mind and wrote this note, which translates from Danish to English as: “I think you should just take it.”
![Reads: Miss Elizabeth Shaw, 1 Hamilton Street, Corinda. Handwritten in black ink. Pretend postmark reads: FTS (Fairy Tooth Service), 20 March 1976.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F68ea0dda-a732-45bb-8471-95a3e45ef1c4_25_toothfairy1a.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Here is the envelope – ripped open top and side with excitement – that delivered Elizabeth’s letter from the ‘Fairy Tooth Service’.
![Letter typewritten in black ink on cream paper. Signed by hand in black ink with a flourish. Reads: FAIRY TOOTH SERVICE, Brisbane Headquarters. Voucher for first tooth, pay 10 (ten) cents to: ELIZABETH MEGAN SHAW. Signed J. Balfour, Chief Fairy.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F48b6e355-c4e9-4e29-8c2e-a3890e2da36b_26_toothfairy3.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Elizabeth remembers the thrill she felt at seven when the letter arrived for her: “This was my first ever official letter in the post, and I have kept it to mark the occasion. I recall being most excited about receiving it.”
![Song. Reads:
Teeth are groovy,
Teeth are white,
Teeth are strong,
And they help you to bite.
Teeth are great,
Teeth are cool,
They are an
important tool.
Message. Reads: This song is for you, Tooth Fairy, for leaving the little message in pink writing. You are the best. Love, Florence and Molly. P.S We made up the song.
Song and message written in pencil on white paper.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F02467907-d21c-4c34-98d2-c2984a45f986_23_tooth+fairy+poem.jpg?w=1240&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Sisters Florence (eight) and Molly (four) wrote this song in reply to a letter left by the Tooth Fairy while collecting a tooth. Their mother adds: “I have kept it hidden (so that they did not accidentally find it) for over ten years.”
![Letter handwritten in black pencil on white paper. Reads: Dear Tooth Fairy, I accidentally swallowed my tooth. Please check the toilet. Love, Freya.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F559ec535-ff43-466a-93aa-c02b6679a06b_27_freyatoothfairyletter.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Five-year-old Freya directs the Tooth Fairy to the likely final destination of her tooth: “I lost my first tooth while eating and swallowed it. I left this letter under my pillow, to make sure the Tooth Fairy found the tooth.”
![Letter handwritten in pencil on the back of a page torn from an exercise book. Reads: To the Tooth Fairy, thank you for my £2! I still have not spent it. I am saving it all. I am very grateful. From Eleanor.
At the bottom of the letter is a pencil drawing of the Tooth Fairy - a small girl with her hair in bunches, wearing a party dress and wings.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F849f5062-cfb3-4ff6-9b39-d4f977c6ffb4_28_img_20180521_231641.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Seven-year-old Eleanor’s mum writes: “My daughter just lost her first tooth… and was so pleased that she wrote a thank-you note. Unfortunately, the Tooth Fairy wasn’t expecting it, so it was still under her pillow the next morning.”
![Letter handwritten in pencil on white ruled paper. Reads: Dear Teeth Fairy, I am worried about you coming. Please write back. My name is Raife. I will leave you a pen and paper. How many tooth fairies are there? Please answer back. From Raife (ray-ff). P.S. Be quiet please!](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F01ce88ef-a1e0-40c3-b94b-ce24f0975493_29_dec85b8f-b3aa-4670-93b2-2c6ac9992385.jpeg?w=750&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Raife, age six, worries that the Tooth Fairy will never find his house or will cause a disturbance if she does: “My son was very concerned that the Tooth Fairy would get lost on her way to our house, and that she would wake up his baby brother, hence the advice to ‘be quite please!’”
![Letter written in mauve felt-tip on white paper. Reads: To Tooth Fairy. Please can I have some fairy dust. I would not like it if you didn't bring me a snow globe. And please can I have some money. Thank you, Rosie.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F209cd4b5-e6fd-461d-8e9e-c53b63068144_30_be8125b2-cda3-4627-91bd-f8933a73678a.jpeg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Rosie (seven) knows that her teacher collects snow globes and asks her mum if they can buy one for him. When her mum says no, she asks the Tooth Fairy instead. Her mum writes: “At 9pm I found myself making a snow globe using a glass jar and glitter and some borrowed stickers. The next day, Rosie told me she can’t give it to her teacher because it has pink stickers, so next time she’s going to ask for another one but make it clear it needs to be blue.”
![Letter written in pink felt-tip on vertical-ruled paper. Reads: I love you. Guess what I got for Christmas? A bear, a book, a Lights Alive, a pair of gloves, some chocolate money. Mind you, I didn't think I deserved them. At first, I thought my fingerless gloves were smelly socks. Then I pulled them out and gave a sigh of surprise and of relief. For being so good a Tooth Fairy, I got the Queen a present, and you one. Lots of love. Yours sincerely, Elizabeth.
Opposite is the original letter from the Tooth Fairy written in pencil in block capitals, and backwards to be read in a mirror. Lights Alive was a light box toy that let children make pictures with coloured lights.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F0e3a3b6e-7326-4e22-9bcd-21ed29d90102_24_7f645eea-3b82-41c9-bdb6-f1be6e157653.jpeg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Elizabeth remembers two reasons she loved visits from the Tooth Fairy at age six: “Not just because of the shiny 20p piece in return for the tooth, but because I would always receive a magical letter from her too, each word written with reversed letters, which meant I had to use a mirror to read it!”
![Letter on notepaper. Reads: I lost you, tooth. Ralph X](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F3da91f41-fe5e-4ea5-9d1b-edd088dacee6_21_image_edit.png?w=960&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Sometimes it’s best to stick with the facts. Ralph was five when, in the middle of family movie night, his first loose tooth popped out of his mouth and across the room. His mum explains: “We scrambled around for it and suddenly Ralph proudly proclaimed, ‘My tooth, my tooth!’ It was a piece of popcorn. Eventually his sister found it and he wrote his letter.”
![Pencil note on white scrap of paper. Reads: Dear Fairy, I do not like your ways and I miss my tooth. From Hugo. PTO.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F20a4b7cc-ae7e-4963-98d7-993a2212c7b6_08_b6963762-83ff-48ac-9f05-76ae61af183d_edit.png?w=828&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Not all children adore the Tooth Fairy and want to know all about them. Hugo's mum explains that her seven-year-old son was miffed that in order to get money for his treasured tooth, he’d have to relinquish it. He hedged his bets though, and the other side of the note reads: “I epprishiate the £1 coin.”
![Letter on white paper. Reads: 5.6.12 Dear Tooth Fairy, are you a girl or a boy? What is your favourite colour? Why do you lack teeth? How old are you? Do you live in the north, south, east or west? From Jessica. Do you rest in the day? Yes or no?](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F16cfdb43-575a-4c2d-86bc-be8b2058506c_10_image_edit_a.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
When Martin lost his first tooth, aged five, his big sister Jessica had lots of questions about what it’s like to be the Tooth Fairy!
![Letter written in black ink on the front of a white piece of paper and blue ink on the reverse. Has an illustration of a woman with what could be wings, with her hair in a pony tail and buttons down her front. Letter front reads: Tooth Fairy, please take care of my tooth, love Jonty! Letter reverse reads: To the Tooth Fairy. you didn't leave money for me last night. You kept my tooth. From Jonty. Take the envelope.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fb243ca92-ffc2-4524-950e-fdc60ce8e59a_14_6da34912-71d9-4d6b-9ffd-4f63dc270356_edit.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Jonty, aged seven, wrote this letter after the Tooth Fairy ‘forgot’ to leave money under his pillow two nights in a row. His mother explains, “He doesn’t have a lot of patience at the best of times and the Tooth Fairy’s apparent tardiness made him really cross: ‘TAKE THE ENVELOPE!’”
![Note on lined paper written in large black crayon letters. Reads: Tooth Fairy, please give me my teeth back.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Ff5452921-0d9e-45de-8c38-89e3b17349b2_11_morrison-tooth-fairy_edit.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Oona’s dad explains this plea from his little girl, written when she was five: “I found this plea under my girl’s pillow in November 2014. Note: Oona is not offering money back. The Fairy is meant to take a two-quid loss in good cheer, grateful for fleeting proximity to a few of the Best Girl’s pearly whites. Nothing doing.“
![Letter on white paper in various colours of ink felt-tip. Reads: Please Tooth Fairy, quite a long time ago I swallowed my tooth and I didn't write a note, because I thought it was not a gap but it was, so please can I have something like £2 or £1? From Jacob, in the bed on the floor by the window. What is Tooth Fairy dust? Thank you.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F75d53962-bf3f-4933-8a1b-ce7f323b1646_18_toothfairy-jacob_edit.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Six-year-old Jacob’s thought processes flow colourfully down the page of his letter: he explains the absence of his tooth, then negotiates payment (making sure that the Tooth Fairy knows where to find him!). Finally, he ponders about how the magic works.
![Letter written on white paper in a spiral-bound notebook. Reads: To Miss Tooth Fairy, sorry about this, but I swallowed my tooth instead of giving it to you, but please can I have some money? Love from James D](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F8459b191-7a4b-4a3d-9805-263a0677fd73_07_44e8d77d-9b80-4dbb-85f4-622fc17a4ef3_edit.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
James, aged six, feels very responsible that he has no tooth for the Tooth Fairy to collect, so he makes sure she knows what happened.
![Letter on pink paper, with pocket stuck on with sellotape to hold a tooth. Reads: Dear Tooth Fairy, I just want to say that I accept any payment. My tooth may be a bit bloody, but you can wash it. If you want, you can give me the money in my GoHenry account. Please send me your picture. (I want to know what you look like.) Best wishes, Calli](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F1f2a3249-6446-43cc-a4e0-e4761bc680c6_20_image_edit.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Calli, aged seven, has a Tooth Fairy tale for the 21st century. She was traumatised one morning to discover that the Tooth Fairy had inadvertently left her a fake £1 coin. This, of course, had to be sent back immediately with a letter to the Tooth Fairy, who communicated her heartfelt apologies via email from a special Tooth Fairy email address. This led to a preoccupation with payment for the next few teeth and the modest proposal to accept payment via card.
![Letter. Reads: To Tooth Fairy. This is my fifth tooth and I am very happy, and even happier because it fell out at school, and I love it when it falls out at school because you can tell your friends and don't have to wait all night. Now out of my tooth coming out, I have some questions to ask you: 1) What is your favourite colour?2) What is your art wall name? 3) If you go to school, who is your best friend? 4) Do you have mums and dads? Please answer all of the questions if possible, and hope you have a nice week. Love Tilly](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fa894af32-528e-42d9-9e8e-07e19962e611_19_8460db76-81e9-4c67-b5c8-53a7c21c71b8_edit.png?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Tilly, who is seven, wrote delightedly to the Tooth Fairy (when she was supposed to be going to sleep) about how exciting it is to lose a tooth in school. She has lots of questions about the Tooth Fairy’s friends and family.
![Letter. Reads: Dear Tooth Fairy, I don't know what you look like. Please can you draw yourself next to me. I promise that I will not show it to no one else at all. Love from Xanthe
P.S. Are you a girl or a boy, Tooth Fairy? P.P.S. I love you. You can draw yourself if you want.
At the bottom of the letter is a coloured crayon drawing of Xanthe with an empty red frame next to her for the Tooth Fairy to draw him/herself.](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F1e99f940-0816-475a-a8be-fd13a7cedda4_16_c0e91cb8-a4ab-4224-8bac-8b46a599c012_edit.png?w=639&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=100)
Xanthe, aged six, promises that she can keep a secret and encourages the Tooth Fairy to reveal themselves, leaving a special frame ready for a picture.