Girls Together — Lee Phillips

As a girl I clung to my diaries. HARD. At first they were cringey attempts to be interesting. Then, day to day recounts of my life in middle school crushing on boys and starting drama in my class (with the occasional existential crisis). In high school, my gaze turned inward and outward. I wrote about the world, my family, how I felt. Throughout all those stages - my diary was a place for me to land. It was a mirror that I could see myself in. A space where I wasn’t judged by anyone but myself (lol). I owe so much of my creativity, imagination, empathy, resilience to my journal. Which is really to say - to myself. When we say “Dear Diary,” who were we writing to? The page? A confidant? A version of ourselves we felt safe with? Whatever it is, I’m so in awe of the way that across time and space young women have turned to a journal to process their lives and “become” themselves. The medium of diary writing feels monumental to me. Creatively, historically, culturally. When I think of the ways journals and diaries have impacted young women’s lives I feel so inspired by us. Everyone who journals is an artist. While diary writing sometimes feels like a solitary what Girls, Together has proved to me is that it’s one we have shared. We have all turned to the page because we felt judged or confused or excited or in love or alone. But we were alone, together. WE WERE GIRLS TOGETHER! And we still are :)