PostSecret was started by Frank Warren in 2004 when he sent off 3,000 self-addressed stamped postcards asking people to reveal a secret, anonymously, and mail it back to him. The postcard was to be decorated in a self-expressive or thematic manner. Warren received hundreds of responses which formed the basis of a community art project.
And the secrets kept coming. Eventually, Warren started the PostSecret Sundays blog where, every Sunday, Warren uploads a selection of the secrets he has received that week.
Further, PostSecret has become a publishing phenomenon with four best-selling books now out: PostSecret, My Secret, The Secret Lives of Men and Women, and A Lifetime of Secrets.
To participate in PostSecret you must do the following (from the PostSecret website):
You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a regret, hope, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, feeling, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.
Create your 4-by-6-inch postcards out of any mailable material. If you want to share two or more secrets, use multiple postcards. Put your complete secret and image on one side of the postcard.
Tips:
Be brief - the fewer words used the better.
Be legible - use big, clear and bold lettering.
Be creative - let the postcard be your canvas.
Mail your secrets, or other correspondence, to:
PostSecret
13345 Copper Ridge Road
Germantown, Maryland
USA 20874-3454
Please consider sharing a follow-up story about how mailing in a secret, or reading someone else's, made a difference in your life.
Since its inception PostSecret has acquired a wide following. Many think PostSecret reached its cultural tipping point when the rock band All American Rejects used PostSecret and PostSecret participants as the motif for their music video Dirty Little Secret:
As a Christian and psychologist I’m fascinated by the PostSecret phenomenon. I'm particularly struck my the many reports of psychological and emotional healing that PostSecret participants--those sending in secrets and those who regularly read them--consistently report. This healing aspect of PostSecret is dramatically captured by this video produced by Frank Warren:
Beyond psychological healing, PostSecret has also caused me to think deeply about the failures of the church and modern Christianity. Specifically, the church claims to be a place, a community, that values confession, honesty, transparency, and authenticity. And yet, few experience churches in this way. Rather, churches tend to be places filled with hypocrisy, shallowness, pretend, and pretense. The younger generation increasingly sees the church as "fake."
These same young people are flocking to PostSecret, a place and community they find to be more authentic, real, gritty and accepting.
No doubt, many with find PostSecret odd, exhibitionistic, ill, and voyeuristic. I think these adjectives do apply. But at its core I think PostSecret has touched a nerve and is meeting a need. A need for authenticity and acceptance that the church has failed to address.
PostSecret: Part 1, PostSecret and Church
Next Post: The Three Biggest Secrets
