Frank Warren's PostSecret

PostSecret began three years ago as a creative idea for an art show exhibit, which just happened to change Frank Warren's life. With a background in small business, Warren is a self-described "accidental artist." PostSecret is not a business; he forgoes all profit on. The only link visible on the stark site, which features a weekly list of secrets written on handmade, anonymous postcards from strangers, is for Hopeline.com, a suicide hotline. The hotline, for which Warren was once a volunteer, nearly went under a year ago and was saved, literally, by PostSecret viewers. In one week, 900 of Warren's visitors contributed a sum total of over $30,000 to the hotline. So what are the secrets behind PostSecret?

I'm in New York right now, doing press for my books. I'll be going back home this weekend. I live in Germantown, Maryland, which is where the PostSecret project started.

How Frank Warren Started PostSecret

It began at an art exhibition in Washington, DC. For my exhibit, I decided to print out 3,000 one-sided postcards, inviting strangers to share a secret with me; something that was true and something they'd never told anyone else.

I handed postcards out anonymously, leaving them between the pages of bookstore books, library books and on park benches. Out of that batch I got about 100 back and I posted the anonymous secrets in my exhibit. I thought that was the end of that, but I was wrong.

People began to hand-make their own postcards and the secrets kept coming. Not just from DC, but the idea seemed to spread virally. I started receiving secrets from people in different states, different continents and different languages. Now I'm getting about 200 postcards a day.

How PostSecret Helped Warren Deal with His Own Secret

What fueled me to keep the project going after that art show had a lot to do with my own healing process. Getting postcards from strangers who were courageous enough to share their private secrets with me gave me the strength I needed to look inside and come to terms with parts of my life. What it really came down to was an experience I had in the fourth grade...the most humiliating experience of my life.

I'd almost forgotten about it until I received a postcard from one person. This person's secret was very similar to mine, and it forced me to acknowledge that part of my life I'd been hiding from. I told my wife and my daughter, I wrote it on a postcard and mailed it to myself. I found the process was very therapeutic.

I've been most surprised by the reaction the project has had with other people. I get e-mails all the time from people who say that facing their secret on a postcard and releasing it has brought them a sense of ownership in their own lives. I always knew that it was kind of special for me when I would get these peeks into people's interior lives that were fascinating and heroic and soulful. Now the website gets 1,000,000 visitors a week. It's amazing that these secrets can have such an impact on people.

PostSecret Does Events

Now I also host PostSecret events, the last one we had was in Toronto, Ontario. It was the largest event I've ever had. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), over 1,000 people came out. We shared secrets and talked about secrets. My favorite part of the events is listening to participants share their own histories with me, or the inspiration they've received from reading the postcards on the website or in the books.

There are also postcards that reflect people's lighter sides. One memorable one I received was from someone who mailed me a Starbucks cup with the secret written on the cup, stamped and addressed. The secret was, "I give decaf to customers who are rude to me." I liked that one a lot.

I don't think PostSecret is a reflection of a highly dysfunctional society, quite the opposite. We keep secrets for a reason. But I think the feelings, thoughts, beliefs and fears we hold in private are often the exact same thing that unite us with others. They're sometimes the most humanistic part of us.