When Eleanore Tebbetts, 16, logs on to her computer to write in her online diary, she joins generations of teenagers who have consoled themselves by filling up the blank pages of a journal.
But rather than lock away her observations or stick them under the mattress when she's finished, Eleanore sends her innermost thoughts to http://www.diaryland.com, where anyone can read them.
Her dad doesn't get it.
"Why would anyone post his diary online?" Terrell Tebbetts asked her. "Isn't the point of diaries that no one reads them?"
No, the point for teens like Eleanore is that people do. Online diaries are rapidly becoming another way that teenagers talk among themselves about themselves. More permanent than instant messages and more accessible than chat rooms, these diaries give them a forum for expression that is anonymous in origin (using screen names only) and international in audience.
Computer buffs have posted Web logs on home pages for years. Ordinary mortals had no such opportunity until about three years ago, when several entrepreneurs independently decided to design community sites where users could start a diary with minimal effort and no money.
The programmers' efforts paid off particularly among teenagers, says Bruce Ableson, founder of the Open Diary (http://www.opendiary.com). About 500,000 users are registered on his site, Ableson says, half of them ages 13 to 20. Eleanore's host, DiaryLand (http://www.diaryland.com), has about 175,000 registered users, two out of three in their teens, according to founder Andrew Smales.
As indicated by recent books such as "Real Boys' Voices," "Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self" and "Teen Ink: Our Voices, Our Visions," teenagers are finding more and more venues in which they can ramble about their day, lament a lost love or try their hand at poetry. Online diaries offer them two things more: a virtually uncensored environment and interactivity.
Both Ableson and Smales say they censor only for slander, racist remarks and harassment, often at the request of readers. Anything else is fair game.
In such an atmosphere, young diarists feel released to do what teenagers need to do: try out different identities, explore conflicting ideas or simply spill their guts.
"Kids are so afraid of being judged," says Erin Gruwell, this year's California Teacher of the Year. "When they feel free to write, something beautiful can happen on a piece of paper or a computer screen."
