For Love & Buttercup Gives Comfort to D.C. Children
By • February 19, 2026 0 288
In honor of Women’s History Month kicking off, we wanted to highlight a Georgetown woman doing great things for the community.
Emily Bhatnagar frequently works alongside MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, but not in the medical field. The 22-year-old is the founder of For Love & Buttercup, a nonprofit that donates books to children who are undergoing cancer treatment. Bhatnagar has a deeply personal connection to MedStar Georgetown—it is where her father receives his cancer treatment for stage four thyroid cancer.
Much of the inspiration for For Love & Buttercup was shaped in hospital waiting rooms, where books became a source of comfort for Bhatnagar, as they often kept her grounded during long and uncertain days.
Bhatnagar gazing at all her books given as part of her book drive for the nonprofit For Love & Buttercup. Photo courtesy Emily Bhatnagar.
Bhatnagar was just 15 years old when her father was diagnosed with cancer.
“Every hour I wasn’t in school, I was at the hospital,” she said. “Some days were so long that I’d fall asleep crying from pure exhaustion—anyone who has loved someone through cancer knows how all-consuming it is—something that often gets reduced to one word the public knows: ‘chemo.’”
Bhatnagar, who is still her father’s caregiver, remembers thinking how she wasn’t even the patient and how hard it felt.
“I couldn’t imagine how scary it must be for a child who may not even understand what’s happening to their body,” she said. “That night, I posted on Nextdoor asking for book donations to comfort a child with cancer.”
That day, For Love & Buttercup was born.
Helping with a book drive for For Love & Buttercup. Photo courtesy Emily Bhatnagar.
The nonprofit became a safe haven for what Bhatnagar called “one of the most formative and traumatic seasons of her life.”
Before her father’s illness, she had been a straight-A student. Soon, she stopped caring about grades and cared more about what she called something “bigger than academics,” comforting her dad. With For Love & Buttercup, it grew to comforting other people as well.
Even though she mourns not having a traditional high school experience going to prom or Friday night football games, Bhatnagar said For Love & Buttercup gave her something greater.
“It gave me a voice, a purpose, and a platform that I never imagined I could build,” she said. “It showed me that caring deeply and feeling vividly was never a weakness, it’s a gift.”
Now five years in, Bhatnagar has been featured in People Magazine and on Good Morning America, the Today Show, and many more outlets. She was named a CNN Heroes Young Wonder in 2023 and last year, received the Margaret L. Hodges Leadership Award at the 37th Annual Lombardi Gala.
“The children I’ve met constantly remind me there is nothing better to be than yourself,” she said. “They are unapologetically who they are, and it’s awe-inspiring to watch them move through life with such grace.”
Emily Bhatnagar. Photo courtesy Emily Bhatnagar.
Bhatnagar said she sometimes feels like “a bit of a nerd,” as “she runs a book drive, after all,” but the children she works with make her feel like the coolest person in the world.
“One of the biggest lessons they’ve taught me is simple, why try to be anyone else when you’re already so cool?” Bhatnagar said.
