The "most trusted stranger in America," according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, is a 42-year-old small business owner whose love for sharing other people's secrets has propelled him into the spotlight.
Frank Warren started out 2004 as a suburban husband, supplying medical records to businesses and companies, and ended the year as the founder of PostSecret, one of the top-20 most popular blogsites according to Technorati.
Originally, PostSecret was supposed to be a short-term art project. During a personal rough period, Frank went out onto the streets of Washington D.C. and handed out 3000 self-addressed blank postcards. He encouraged people to write a personal and true secret that has never been spoken before on the postcard, add a touch of artwork and mail it in to him. The subsequent 300 postcards that Frank received were exhibited as an installation in the 2004 multi-media arts event "Artomatic." However, even after the event had ended, people continued to mail in postcards.
Currently, Frank receives around 1000 postcards weekly from all over the world and chooses approximately 20 postcards to be displayed online at his blog every Sunday. The postcards all vary in content-some are heart-breaking, some are hilarious or inspiring and there are even some that are incriminating-but all provide an intensely personal look into individuals from all walks of life.
"I see the project as a collection of secrets that I share with people in different ways," Frank said. "It's artwork, it's a way to feel connected, a possible journey of self-recognition if you want to participate. It is what you need it to be."
Free from all annotation and judgment, the PostSecret blog is a simple sanctuary. Despite the intense responses that some of these postcards elicit, especially those involving rape and murder, Frank believes that his job is "not to react or judge, but to just reflect the secret back for others to see." The only comments that are ever posted are some responses and reactions from other viewers and the occasional call by Frank for an English translation. With PostSecret receiving millions of hits every week, Frank's biggest concern is keeping the site safe, which is why apart from a legal notice, instructions on how to send in a postcard and a link to the suicide help-line Hopeline, there is nothing but secrets, not even advertisements.
So why postcards?
"I like linking the use of modern technology with the old technology of snail-mail postcards," Frank said.
While using the blog as a convenient way for people to experience PostSecret, Frank also works to preserve the intimacy of each secret by refreshing the site every Sunday, never using a postcard twice and not keeping any accessible archives on the site.
"I check PostSecret every Sunday because it's interesting to see the way that people express the things that matter to them," junior Erica Gropp said.
PostSecret can be a voyeuristic experience for some, a form of self-counseling for others and even a source of comfort for those who are depressed or suicidal. Indeed, many "confessors," such as the notable Cassie-whose picture has been a staple at the bottom of the PostSecret blog-have cited PostSecret as their source of hope in their time of need. Although depression is not the dominating theme among the postcards that are sent in, it is clear that loneliness is. Having been a volunteer at the Hopeline suicide hotline for years, Frank strongly supports the help that they offer and hopes to introduce other help services to his website in the near future. Far from being a simple promoter for these services, Frank genuinely believes in the good work that they do. So much so that, when the All American Rejects offered to pay Frank $1000 in 2006 to use some of the secrets in their music video for "Dirty Little Secret," Frank refused. He instead offered them access to the secrets only in return for a $2000 donation to Hopeline.
An engaging and deeply personal look into the demons and hopes of unknown strangers all around us, PostSecret has come very far from its humble origins as an installation. The winner of eight Bloggies-including "Weblog of the Year" for the second consecutive year-and the muse for a pop music video, PostSecret has become a modern phenomenon.
Even the PostSecret books, compilations of never-before-seen postcards, are a success. The fourth installation, A Lifetime of Secrets, came out on Oct. 9 and is "a full story arc of a biography of all of us, from age eight to 80, as told through our secrets," Frank said.
With a secret keeper who loves and lives to share, it's no wonder that PostSecret is the worst-kept secret on the internet. So how does Frank deal with his weighty task?
"I really feel as though I'm haunted by other people's secrets, but I don't see it as a bad thing," Frank said. "It helps me to feel more compassion towards people. I've gained more empathy."
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