"I write my own personal diary nearly every day and it helps to clear my head and get my thoughts into perspective but it isn't helping me with the problem I have now.

I am pregnant."

This is 15-year-old Kay's diary. And, like most diaries, her latest entry is another honest and affecting piece. Direct, personal, almost painful to read, yet compelling, it's typical of the best of a new genre -- the online diary.

Beginning with homepages that were updated frequently, the Net credits Canadian Carolyn Burke, who began hers in January 1995. Slowly, more people joined her -- writing daily entries that detailed what they'd been doing (and what they wish they'd been doing instead), what they were worrying about, and even what they were dreaming about. And all this in spite of the fact that most of what they wrote was never going to interest anyone other than the writers themselves, and maybe their parents.

Cyberspace today is full of bits and sometimes-lengthy tales. From relationships to confessions, loneliness to wild parties to dealing with mundane life, there are thoughts on all subjects. But aren't diaries supposed to be things we keep under the bed, full of secrets never to be told? That's one myth currently being redefined.

Read this, for example: Yes, I slept with my best freind.

He was meant to sleep in a sleeping bag while i'm on the bed, but he never got in his sleeping bag. talking on the bed turned into sleeping on the bed, and that's how we started. our lust for each other last night was too strong to hold back. We made love and cuddled and slept together. i wonder where our relationship's going to take us next...?

16-year-old Gina is not alone. With over a thousand teenagers registered all over the world on Globo.org, there is a lot of angst around. All their previous work is recorded for those who want to browse through and, if you identify with particular situations and people, you are also free to send them email.

Walking the fine line between honestly sharing your secrets and putting yourself in danger is certainly something not all online diarists achieve. At some sites, says journal keeper Diane Patterson, her reaction is, "You're kidding, right? You're telling complete strangers this?"

Like her, if you wonder what prompts people to share their personal lives with absolute strangers, read interviews of online diarists like Clio who explain what drives them to maintain an online diary. "I am both less and more conscious about other people's image of me. I remain very aware of how much information I disclose about myself. But, at the same time, I am gradually learning to let go and put more of myself out there. It is freeing to be able to open up."

But can you ever talk about quality in a genre so personal? Yes, there are highbrow diaries too! On Everything2.com, the editors check your work for spelling mistakes and even encourage you to provide links to your diary if there are any other subjects within the site, or on the Web, on a similar topic. An online searchable diary where you can search for notes on any subject that has been written about by members of the site, everything2.com proudly states, "E2 is not for everybody. It's definitely not for the terribly impatient. Please take your time here."

And it does take time. Reading a diary or putting one up here is a process. Almost every other word is linked to a write-up somewhere on the site. The editors encourage you to understand and use HTML and even have a voting system to mark your work where, if you don't make the grade, you could be shot down. The purpose? "To encourage quality writing."

Its obvious that they think once you invite an audience to read your diary, it's only fair that what you write is intelligible.

Everyone's joining in. Students, fathers, sailors, prisoners, artists and travel agents are all keeping journals online today. From a ten-year-old boy in 1956 to war diaries to the diary of an ordinary Australian housewife, you can find a host of different diaries and home pages at Yahoo

For those wanting to know the A to Z of online diaries and maintaining their own journals, About.com also has a lot to offer. It lists online diaries of men and women from all over the world in alphabetical order, along with tips, debates and discussions on the hobby's pros and cons. In addition, there are also sites like diarist.net which offer a whole support structure of notification lists, web rings, list servers, How-To's and How-Not-To's. Current lists like Open Diary sort diaries by their authors' gender, location, birth date and frequency.

A personal favourite is Quitsmokingdiaries where people share your struggles and triumphs as they try to quit smoking. The site exhorts you to read other diaries of other smokers as they quit, so that "You'll soon learn that you are not alone, and that quitting IS possible! By creating your own diary, you'll make quitting a much more conscious effort, you'll be more accountable to yourself and other readers, thus making quitting potentially easier."

Bottom line: Internet diaries can be entertaining, and there are many who are not afraid to say it aloud. Like the Moose Mansions home page: "If there's one thing I get a perverse, bizarre, erotic, vicarious thrill from, it's reading other people's diaries. Some are moving, some amusing, some merely cringe-worthy. I'm not saying which is which. They are all pretty much genuine"

So, go and find a voice that speaks to you, or become one that can speak to others.

And for the cynical who wonder whether anyone actually reads these diaries, here's an entry from Eric Fritzinger's diary:

On a very cool note, though. A reporter from an Arizona newspaper emailed me to ask if she could quote one of my diaries! =) It's good to know that people read these. At least we all aren't wasting our...fingers =)."

Do you believe him? I do.

Additional Links

Radio Diaries
Diaries in audio, diaries written by prisoners, by teenagers and more...

Open Pages
Open Pages is the premiere guide to the "scribe tribe" -- netizens who keep put journals, diaries, daily ramblings and sporadic babblings on the Web.

Elvis' Diaries
The make-believe version of the legendary lost journal of Elvis Presely

Click Memories
A diary to collect and display all your photographs with little notes

Cosmopolitan
Dating Diary and adventures of single women

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