In less than three years, PostSecret has become one of the world's most popular blogs. Last year it won five Bloggies for Best American Weblog, Best Topical Weblog, Best Community Weblog, Best New Weblog, and Weblog of the Year.
The formula is simple. The site’s curator, Frank Warren, gets 100 to 200 postcards a day. Every Sunday, he picks about 20, scans them and posts them on his blog. That’s it. PostSecret was exploiting “user generated content” before it became fashionable.
“Curator” is the word because PostSecret started as a community art project, exhibited at Artomatic in Washington DC. Most people don’t just write their secrets, they express them in photos or drawings, or at least by adapting picture postcards.
Warren has received postcards written in numerous languages, including Braille and Morse code. Many people type or print out their secret and stick it on a picture, which reduces the risk of someone recognising their handwriting. It has happened.
Secrets have also been sent in on Starbucks cups, balloons and other things. Postcards have arrived with cash, keys, cigarettes, drugs and other items attached.
The secrets themselves cover all human emotions from joy to despair. Some are funny, some philosophical, some heartbreaking. It’s the mixture of art and emotion that makes the site work so well. Some secrets raise a laugh: “All my life I wanted to look like Liz Taylor, now Liz Taylor is starting to look like me.” But as you’d expect, there are many more sad secrets than happy ones: “I still haven’t told my father I have the same disease that killed my mother.” One card was a prenatal scan. It said: “This is the only picture that will ever be taken of you.” While PostSecret doesn’t take paid advertising, it has the phone number for Hope, a suicide helpline. Warren helps as a volunteer and has given it financial support. He thinks sharing secrets can help set people free. At a book signing, Warren said: “Sometimes when we think we’re keeping a secret, that secret’s actually keeping us.”
Selections of the best postcards form a travelling art exhibition and have been published in book form. The third volume - A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book – is due in October. There’s even a pop song, Dirty Little Secret, by All American Rejects.
In fact, perhaps the best way to experience PostSecret now is to go to YouTube and search for PostSecret or Frank Warren. There are plenty of user-created videos that combine a string of cards with an emotional song. Prepare to weep.
Here’s another secret: “Your last mortal thought will be: Why did I take so many days – just like this – for granted?”