BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and actress Hailee Steinfeld welcomed their first child, a baby girl, earlier this year.
On Friday, in the latest issue of her Beau Society newsletter titled "A letter to my daughter," Hailee shared the baby's name: Harper Haize Allen.
The letter starts with:
"Dearest Harper,
I’m in awe of you."
Later in the letter, Hailee shared the following:
"And even though I know I am meant to guide you through this life, Harper Haize Allen, the truth is that already, you have taught me far more than I could ever teach you."
Steinfeld and Allen announced their engagement in November 2024. The pair got married in May 2025. In December 2025, the couple shared their pregnancy announcement. In April, we learned that they welcomed their daughter into the world.
You can read the entire letter below.
"Dearest Harper,
I’m in awe of you.
You’ve been here for only a short while now, and somehow it feels as though you’ve always been ours. There are moments (like right now, as you sleep so soundly on my chest), I still look at you and wonder how you’re real. These last few months have been beautiful and exhausting. Sacred and so special. The longest days and the shortest season all at once.
People tell you becoming a mother changes everything, but no one tells you how, why, or when exactly. It isn’t always in the big moments. Sometimes it’s realizing that I no longer measure time in months or years, but in ounces, naps missed and naps miraculously taken, in diaper changes, and the quiet triumph of a successful transfer from my arms to your crib.
Your daddy and I look at you often and ask each other the same question: How did we get so lucky to have you?
You, whose tiny fingers already wrap around mine with a trust I pray I never take for granted. You, whose dad is officially outnumbered when it comes to choosing a movie for movie night, though I suspect he’ll secretly love every minute of it.
Everyone tells me not to blink. Now I understand why. Because already, I miss versions of you that still feel like yesterday: The way you’d make sure we’d have multiple visits throughout the night, the impossibly small diapers we swore looked enormous before you arrived.
Before I was a mother, I had never understood this feeling of being so wistful and filled with excitement at the same time. I want your baby hair to stay this soft forever, but I long for the day you might ask me to braid it down your back while we’re sitting in the grass. I could tear up at the thought of your tiny toes getting bigger, but I know that someday your big-girl feet will carry you through this big world.
It’s funny, I used to think motherhood was about raising a child. But now, I think being a mother is actually about allowing yourself to become someone new over and over again. Each day with you, I meet a different version of myself. A softer version. A stronger version. A more patient and present version. A version that loves everything and everyone — including myself — more deeply than she ever knew possible.
I’ve learned that motherhood isn’t made up of grand moments as much as the tiny, precious ones. The sway of tired hips in the middle of the night, your little milk-drunk smiles, and the quiet realization, over and over again, that my heart is now somehow living outside of my body and it always will.
And even though I know I am meant to guide you through this life, Harper Haize Allen, the truth is that already, you have taught me far more than I could ever teach you.
One day you’ll read this and know that to be true, my sweet girl.
Love,
Your mom"
