Teenage Diaries (The Closest thing to Honesty)

Last week at school we spent 3 days not doing classes, but this 'retreat' program instead. Basically, our year group just went around to different sessions in different parts of the school and learnt about 'how to cope' with being in Year 11. After learning about going to the library, not plagiarising and where the counsellors office is, the school chaplain did a session with us about what is underneath. It was brief and a bit mixed up and most of the time I was just writing down what he was saying at random intervals as quotes. He says lots of weird analogies and I have always wanted to write them down somewhere. At the end of it he told us to stick our page of notes from the session into a journal and then keep writing in that journal and remember to keep asking ourselves, what is underneath? 

I was feeling pleased with myself, because I had already been keeping a regular journal since November last year. Before that I had a journal of driving across the Nullarbor to Perth on the big family road trip, and one before that of going to Germany with my german class last-last December. But then I heard people saying things about how they weren't going to keep a journal, because it was stupid and a waste of time and gay. And I felt sorry for them. I know how it feels to cringe at what you wrote that seemed so important at the time. I recently found my dream-diary, inspired by Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban during my intensive Harry Potter Phase, when I was 8 and the series hadn't become a nostalgic-post-ironic-tumblrgirl-icon. Anyway I'm pretty sure I made all my dreams up in a desperate attempt to prove myself psychic/a lucid dreamer with many symbolic dream elements. I was going to destroy the diary in embarrassment, but I didn't. I may not like how precocious and wiccan-ish I was back in the day, but it was a stage in the development of my identity (which is still a work in progress) and my journal was an important historical document for that.

And what about all those famous people who have their journals published? When you are famous, your fans are going to desperately want to get to know you and how you came to be you. Greg from Diary of A Wimpy Kid  had it all figured out from the first scene of the movie.

I could think of a whole bunch of cool people who kept a diary (see: List of Diarists on Wikipedia). If you want to be part of that gang, you need to get yourself a journal, like, right now. If you're still a teenager and haven't written a single diary entry, it is possible that you will one day be filled with regret about not being able to remember anything about THE BEST YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. 

There are a whole bunch of Teen Icons who kept a journal about these crucial years, but my absolute favourite journaller is a little less well known, than say, Princess Mia of the Princess Diaries. My favourite ever movie since the middle of last year is called LOL: Laughing Out Loud (2008). It's in French, directed by Lisa Azuelos and is a Coming-Of-Age tale about Lola, a french teenager living and going to school in Paris, who is trying to make it through life and love. She records it all in a small diary, in what I think is the sweetest, most teenagery way possible.
Filled with love hearts, drawings and little souvenirs from her adventures, which go from not-that-cute (condoms, gross), to pretty cute (photo booth photos with her best friends) and cuter-than-cute (Chupa-Chup wrappers from the lollipops she shared with lead singer of the band, talented and beautiful Mael, her love interest). This movie inspired me to keep journalling. Everyone should watch it, especially now as the American remake starring Teen Anti-Icon Miley Cyrus and the frankly uncool Demi Moore is looming. I can already guarantee that the original French LOL will be a thousand times better, so go out and find it at your DVD rental store! Me and my friends watch it religiously, like every sleepover. We've even made our own LOL movie T-shirts. Here are some stills for now:

So, in the spirit of the close-to-pure Honesty of the Teenage Diary, I will share with you some pages from my own. I was going to explain and put each entry into context, but I've decided not to and leave it up to your imagination, more fun that way! Half of these scans are so bad you can barely read them anyway. 

None of these ones are very personal, but I'm working on that. In my current journal, I'm trying to be more reflective:

I think I'll be able to be more and more honest as get I better at journalling. For honesty-motivation, I've been reading these funny little books I borrowed from my school library called 'Monologues for Teens!'. I've chosen some short little sentiments that I feel are pretty honest. They may be manufactured, thought-up, by drama-enthusiast adults intended for teenagers to perform for drama assessment tasks, but I don't think they are any less true.

SO do you have a journal? Do you like writing in it? If not, are you inspired to get your teenage diary on after reading this? Have you shared pictures of your journal anywhere? Please post a link if you do! I would love to see them, and hear all your thoughts in the comments!