Post Secret
PostSecret is a project founded by Frank Warren. Essentially, Warren collects postcards upon which anonymous senders have written their secrets. The postcards are artistic creations (one might even venture to call each one a tiny masterpiece), with pictures, drawings, magazine scraps, stickers, and other materials that have been put together to form a unique, shared secret.
At first this was a one-manned project. Warren printed 3,000 blank postcards and invited people from the streets of Washington, DC, to mail them back to him anonymously with a secret. From this original first batch, only 100 actually followed the instructions, but the idea spread and the project collected over 150,000 secrets its first three years. Warren selected the most intriguing, creative, and/or heart-wrenching postcards from his earliest submissions and put them together in his book called PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives.
The confessions that people make can be equally horrifying, hilarious, or inspiring. One writer confesses, “I got a parking ticket, and so did the car next to me. I replaced the ticket on the car next to me with mine. My ticket got paid. And the one I took? I mailed it to PostSecret.” And indeed, those words were pasted onto a yellow parking ticket. Another writer admits, “I trashed my parents’ house to look like I had a party while they were out of town… …so my mom would think I had friend.” The submissions are frighteningly genuine. One confessed, “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have an eating disorder.” Sending in the submission, releasing the secret, empowers the writers as well as the readers. It can inspire writers and readers to act, to change the way they have been living.
Since the first book, PostSecret has become a growing community. There have been entire art exhibits created to share the most unique PostSecrets. You can check the PostSecret blog to see several recent secrets that have been selected to be shared with the public. If you are interested in what you see, I would suggest purchasing the original book or one of the four compilations that have followed.
