Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Frank Warren is my Friend

I've made a new friend.

He may not know it, but Frank Warren has become near and dear to my heart, and I know I'm not the only one.  Frank Warren started a blog called Post Secret. I stumbled across it after over hearing some class mates talking about it during my Creative Strategy and Execution class at Cal State Fullerton. I know it sounds cliche, but this really has changed my life and opened my eyes to all new creative avenues.  

Frank Warren calls for people to send him a simple post card (address is on his blog) with a secret. The secret can be vague, specific, insightful, illegal, crazy, gross, anything you can think of, the only rule: it has to be something you've never shared with anyone before.  People send in postcards of every type, some hand written, some typed with pictures, some with collages, anything.  Every Sunday Frank posts a handful of secrets on the blog and people can comment on them. 

After following the blog for a few weeks I purchased two of the four books Frank has published filled with secrets people has sent. Each page I read I realized that so many of my secrets were in the book without me even sending them in. "I know you don't really like me (please stop pretending)," I felt like someone was reading my mind, but in reality it was just a whole slew of people that knew exactly how i felt. I cried. 

The thing about Post Secret is, no matter if your post card gets on the blog or even put in the mail, just getting your secret out and on paper is the biggest therapeutic release anyone can feel. And, it's completely free, no showing up to a shrink that charges you by the hour, just letting it out yourself and on your own terms. 

Since discovering Post Secret, I have began keeping a journal. Each page filled with my secrets, mimicked in the style of the post cards. One day I will send them in, but until then...

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

  1. Hi Victoria,

    You have written a very interesting post. Looking at Frank Warren's blog, there are so many interesting and creative expressions of people's inner-secrets. Part of the reasons that blog is so popular is because he has utilized the power of crowdsourcing. That is having various people participate in a collaborative project. Secrets are also taboo and somewhat mysterious. This causes intrigue and people are drawn to it. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete