I appreciate your initiative, but individual action cannot solve systemic problems: We must socialize the means of oestrogen production.

I recommend buying plushies in advance before she comes over to your house. Just buy all of them in order to make sure that you have at least one she likes.

Nonono, you do not take her out to dinner. You make her dinner yourself, because home cooking is the best and she deserves it.

Inside every 80-year-old is a confused 18-year-old who does not understand how they got there.

That is a very cute story and you are a good parent.

I wish your friend all the best and hope they will contact you soon. 🍀

Conversely, it’s hard to care about literature when you don’t have empathy.

Of course, the question remains how much people with low empathy are willing to pick up a book on their own volition. Though at least studies have shown (here is one) that reading fiction increased empathy even when people were not particularly empathic to begin with.

Serious response: Studies have proven again and again that reading fiction increases empathy. Many English teachers probably chose their jobs because they had a love for literature in the first place and their exposure to it has had its effect on them. [In that regard the absolute worst people on this planet are well aware of this effect and attack libraries, books with diverse viewpoints and the humanities whenever they get a chance to.]