Recent studies highlight all kinds of benefits from having an affectionate sister. According to researchers, people with sisters are less likely to feel like “nobody loves me” or “unhappy, sad or depressed.” So what’s so special about having a sister?

Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and the author of ?You Were Always Mom’s Favorite! Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives,? offers us some theories. She recently wrote an essay in The New York Times called ?Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier.? Thalia A-M Bruehl shares her experience of becoming a younger sister in adolescence when her family adopted an older girl. Her article, ?From Only Child to Sister,? was published in Babble.