Nearly four hours before the event, attendees were lining up inside Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe to meet Frank Warren, creator of the community project PostSecret.
PostSecret is a community-targeted project that encourages people to write a secret on a postcard then send it anonymously to Warren, who posts the secrets on his Web site, postsecret.com. He also publishes books of compilations of the secrets, the most recent titled “Confessions on Life, Death, and God.”
Warren receives secrets from all over the world, a topic he addressed in his discussion with nearly 300 people who attended the event Monday night.
It was the second time Warren visited the Tempe bookstore and this time, instead of doing his normal presentation, he said he wanted to discuss more.
He started by explaining why PostSecret means so much to him.
“I was an only child for the first seven years of my life,” Warren said. “I guarded myself a bit, and I didn’t feel like I could discuss things openly with everyone. As I grew older I started to wonder if everyone had a place like this, a place they kept hidden and things they never shared because the risk was too great.”
Warren said he has always had a special relationship with postcards and had two other projects involving them before he started PostSecret.
Warren said he feels personally connected to many of the secrets he receives. He recalled receiving one with a picture of a broken door, its note revealing the door had been broken by the person’s father trying to break inside to beat him or her.
“I posted that secret and within an hour, people all over were sending me pictures of their doors with notes attached saying they didn’t know anyone else was going through this,” Warren said. “Everyone seemed to feel such a relief to share the burden, and I realized I had a door like that. For the first time, I felt like I was part of a community that understood that part of me.”
Cindy Dach, general manager of Changing Hands, said one of the reasons store officials brought Warren to Tempe was because his values are very similar to those Changing Hands tries to convey.
“PostSecret leaves the path behind it better than it found it,” she said.
The number of people in attendance doubled since Warren’s first visit, Dach said.
Both times, though, the crowd seemed to be mostly people in their 20s because the site appeals to a younger demographic, she said.
Psychology senior Winnie Chu, an avid PostSecret fan who also saw Warren during his first visit to Changing Hands, said she owns all five of his books, has been reading the site for about four years and even submitted a secret herself.
“It was never published, but just the act of sending it was so liberating and humbling. To be able to write down the truth allowed me to convince myself that it was true,” she said. “I was being held back by this secret and writing it down helped me realize that. It also helped me realize it was OK to have this feeling.”
Warren said he has found that sharing secrets changes people and changes the way they relate to others.
“All of us have one secret that would break your heart if you knew what it was,” he said. “And sometimes, it’s good to know you’re not the only one.”
Reach the reporter at sheydt@asu.edu.
