Fistly, here's a couple of definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary:

Agony Aunt   a person who answers letters in an agony column

Agony Column   a column in a newspaper or magazine offering advice on reader's personal problems

Traditionally, the image is of a middle-aged woman who dispenses kindly and sage advice to people who write in with their personal problems, hence the term 'aunt'. Although names, ages and other key identifiers would be changed to protect correspondents, the aunt would publish in print all the problems she replied to, together with her own answers. She would therefore build up a loyal and avid readership, thus adding to the circulation of whichever newspaper or magazine hosted her column.

But times change. Although we salute the spirit and embrace the traditions of the agony aunt, we're proud to say that we've moved the concept some way from the original position. For one thing, the days of waiting for your problem to be posted, read, answered and posted back to you/published in print are long gone: now we have superfast email thanks to the Internet! What's more, and we think this is critical, your problem no longer appears in print for all to read: everything is totally private and confidential. Finally, we don't have one aunt, but several, of varying ages; some of them are even men! This means that there's always someone who can empathise and connect with you and your problems to give you the best-informed answer possible.

We're an online agony aunt service that strives to be innovative. Above all, we want to be able to give you clear, honest advice - fast.

back