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Report on Dear Diary,
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
In August 2007, we asked SmartGirls about their diaries. We wanted to know how many kept them and what were the most common things they wrote in their diaries. Here's what we found.
We had 162 SmartGirls respond to our survey last month.
Of those who responded, 154 of them were girls.
Most were between 11 and 14 years old (17 were 11, 23 were 12, 34 were 13, 21 were 14, and 11 were 15).
European was the most common ethnic background at 32%, while African, Asian, Latin American, and Multiracial were all pretty close at 9-11% each. We had the fewest number of respondents from Middle Eastern (5), Native American (2), and Pacific Islander (2) backgrounds.
Almost 60% (95) of those who responded were from the United States. The next largest group were those from Canada, England, or who chose not to answer this question at 7-9% each. We also had a handful of people from Australia, the British Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Ghana, Iceland, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, the Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, and Whales.
Most of the people who responded were from towns (54) or suburbs (35). but many were also from big cities (27). Not as many were from rural areas (15) and villiages (4).
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What your diary looks like isn't as important as what is in it, but it can still be an important part of how you express yourself! We asked a couple of questions about what SmartGirls' diaries look like. Check out our results to see how your diary matches up to other SmartGirls'!
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According to the graph below, most SmartGirls (60%) use an actual diary to record their thoughts, feelings, and events. Some (20%) just use a notebook. Others use a blog (6%) or whatever is handy (4%). Ten percent use some other form for their diary, and no one uses loose leaf paper.
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| What form does your diary take? |
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When we asked how SmartGirls expressed themselves in their diaries, we found out that the most popular choices were (in order of popularity from most to least):
Printing
Cursive
Pictures/drawings/doodles
Quotes
Colors
Colored pencils/pens/markers
Poems
Songs/lyrics
Other
A made up language
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You may have heard of the 5W's - Who, What, When, Where, Why - in school but we are going to use them to understand SmartGirls and their diaries.
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Since we already established who answered the survey, we are going to use "Who" to look at who SmartGirls let read their diaries.
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| Who do you let read your diary? |
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SmartGirls' diaries are pretty private! Eighty percent (80%) said that they don't let anyone read their diaries, and 11% sometimes let their friends read them.
We also asked if anyone had ever read their diary without their permission and 50% said that they didn't know! Twenty percent were sure that no one had ever read their diary without permission, but unfortunately 30% think that someone has read their diary! Understandably, most said that they would feel angry, hurt, betrayed, and unable to trust that person.
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What is the purpose in keeping a diary? What do SmartGirls write in their diaries? How honest are they with their diaries? We have the answers!
SmartGirls keep diaries for the following reasons:
To express themselves (107 votes)
To sort out their feelings (98 votes)
To record important events and feelings (84 votes)
To vent (79 votes)
To record their day to day lives (66 votes)
To get to know themselves better (52 votes)
Other (12 votes)
It looks like love, school, emotions, and friends are the things that SmartGirls most often express themselves about.
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| What do you write about? |
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SmartGirls aren't tied down to a schedule when it comes to writing in their diaries. Fifty-seven percent said that they write in their diaries when they have something to say, not on a set schedule (like daily or weekly).
The graph below supports this idea. It shows that "Anytime I need to express myself" got the most votes in response to our question "When do you write most often?". They also write when they are happy, stressed, sad, when they need to talk, and are angry or upset.
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| When do you write most often? |
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The bedroom was the hands-down winner for where SmartGirls write in their diaries! 75% reported that was where they did their writing! Also, many of the respondents said that they either have a secret place to hide their diary (22%), don't hide it at all (24%), hide it in their dresser (15%), or hide it somewhere else (20%).
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We asked SmartGirls how they thought they compared to their friends when it came to writing in a diary and 60% said that they did not know how often their friends wrote in diaries. They must have some pretty secretive friends!
85% of respondents reported being totally or mostly honest with their diaries.
80% of SmartGirls said that things in the world sometimes or never inspired them to write.
In the future, most respondents will probably go back and read their old diaries to remember how they thought/felt at the time.
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We got some pretty interesting responses to our question "How do you think you benefit from writing in a diary?" Here are a few of them:
It helps me to stop stressing, to put all my feelings and what I want to say on paper, then it helps me to stop thinking about them. It's also great to be able to look back and see how you felt about someone at a certain time. I can see how my relationship with this guy I love develops over a year.
I think it gets a lot of emotions out. You can write whatever you want, and (hopefully) no one will find it. For me, writing helps to get rid of stress and other negative feelings.
I think it lets me find out what's wrong at the time. I also think it lets me express something that I don't think anyone would want to hear or I don't want them to hear. It makes life much easier so that I don't have to keep my feelings bottled up.
It benefits to write in a diary/journal because it shows how you are feeling. My father lost his job, my aunt and uncle moved, my grandparents moved, my grandfather had surgery, my uncle lost his job, my uncle had surgery, and my mother went back to her office work. I don't think that I ever could have gotten through that year if I hadn't had my journal right next to my bed. A journal lets you express your feelings without being afraid of being judged. It provides a place to share your secrets and feelings without the need to be precise in your explanations.
I think that writing in diaries is good because you get to keep good memories and possibly one day you can show them to your kids and let them know that you also went through a lot of stuff when you were their age.
I think it helps me to express my feelings in a safe and healthy way. After I write my thoughts down on paper, I feel a lot better. I love looking back at all my old diaries to see how I've grown as a person over the years. The entries remind me of how much I've overcome as an individual, and that I can do anything!
Writing in my diary helps me to think and reflect and just get my feelings out. When I'm really angry I write and write and when I'm finished I feel a lot better. I also like recording my good moments so I can go back and remember those great times. Having a diary is like having a person you can talk to all the time, any time, and they listen unfailingly. The only disadvantage is, they can't talk back to you.
There are things you just can't say to anyone and there you can write them. To know that those ideas/feelings are somewhere else besides my mind makes me feel better. I can also look to what I've just written and think about the problems more clearly.
I can look back and have proof about what happened in my life. And I want to give them to my children so they can see what happened in my life, what kind of person I was, and my feelings. I love writing in my diaries, because it's sort of like a person to me, and like, they are safe with my secrets.
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Does you diary have a name? These SmartGirls have given their diaries names! Check out some of them:
Latryce
Bernice
Confessions of a Teenage Girl
Mariam's World
My Spin On Life
A Record of My Existences
Lila
My Diary
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How to SmartGirls sign their diaries? Well, most of them (61) don't! Those who do, end their entries with "love" (22), "see ya" (23), or something else (44).
And on that note, we hope you enjoyed this sneak peak into the world of SmartGirl diaries. Until next time!
Love,
SmartGirl
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2007.
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