Dear Diary… | The Press

He knows everything. Often long before the parents. Sorrows, crushes, questions, big and small. The first awkward kiss like the first heartache, oh so painful, remember. Ode to the diary, always cherished by teenagers in the era of social networks.

“I don’t really like talking about my problems with people,” says 14-year-old Ella Veillette in a shy voice.

The teenager plays nervously with the chains around her neck. Sitting in front of her is a notebook decorated with stickers from the Haikyū manga series. When everything goes wrong, she prefers to confide in her diary. At least he doesn’t judge her. And he knows how to keep a secret. “I survived a lot of things thanks to him,” says Ella.

The Press met her on the day of the release of slush heart, a week ago, film scripted by Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, known for drawing inspiration from her old diaries. Being a teenager hasn’t changed much since the author turned 16. Except on one point: young people are now connected at all times. Finding someone to confide in, even a complete stranger on Twitter, has never been easier.

Do they still see the point of keeping a diary? “I strongly hope so! exclaims Manon Auger, lecturer in the literary studies department of the University of Quebec in Montreal.

But his intuition tells him otherwise. The practice has probably decreased with the appearance of social networks, which eat up precious time in our daily lives. Time that once would have been used to write in his diary, for example.

Nevertheless, the practice is far from having disappeared. Young people like Ella Veillette keep it alive. The teenager had her first diary at 9 years old. Bullied at school, she was looking for a way to ease her pain. And she never stopped writing.

Sitting cross-legged on the table in a room at the Kekpart Youth Center in Longueuil, she reads aloud a passage from her diary, the pages of which are blackened with applied calligraphy. She nicknamed it “Monster” because it “has a lot in it”. His bickering with his friends, his conflicts with his parents, his problems at school, his quest for identity. “Writing helps me put my ideas into place,” she says.

Stories of the heart

Alexia Guérette, 12, is at the dawn of adolescence. Next fall, she starts high school. Is it exciting, growing up? “Yes, but I can’t wait for my mother to quibble with me because I have attitude! she laughs.

On her bed, a dozen diaries with floral motifs or turquoise fur. “I really write my whole life in there,” she explains.

The girl takes a notebook from the pile and unlocks the padlock on the cover with a small key. It is a special journal, reserved for his love stories. Because that’s also a lot, a diary. The crushes, the butterflies in the belly, the heartaches.

Unsurprisingly, the activity is often associated with young girls. In stores, diaries are often colorful, adorned with unicorn and rainbow designs meant to appeal to them.

There is also a historical reason. At the end of the 19th^e century, young girls leaving the convent kept a diary until their marriage, explains Manon Auger, author of the book Diaries and personal diaries in Quebec – Poetics of an uncertain literary genre.

For a long time, the diary was the only type of writing allowed for women. “All women who had a somewhat creative spirit, who loved writing, their only place of expression was the diary,” she recalls.

A genre often considered as “sub-literature because it is associated with everyday life, with unimportant things”. Like all traditionally feminine activities, diaries are often ridiculed, laments Ms.^me Auger.

Many benefits

However, there are only benefits to writing down your moods, especially at this age. Adolescence is a roller coaster of emotions, growing hairs, cravings that change every day. It’s a lot, a lot at the same time. “It’s a really important period of transition where you are in search of your identity. And the diary is a healthy way to reflect on one’s identity,” emphasizes Manon Auger.

Mayté Reyes Yeung, 12, writes in her diary every night. She recounts “everything, everything, everything” about her day, even the most banal. “It’s like I’m talking to someone. Afterwards, I am more relieved, ”she says.

To write in your diary is to be completely in the present moment, to be attentive to what is happening around you and inside yourself. “It’s a space of freedom where you don’t have to confront each other’s eyes, but where you can develop your own thoughts, your own personality,” recalls Manon Auger.

True, it’s difficult to be a teenager, confirms Ella Veillette. But it’s a little easier with a diary. “When I reread them, I tell myself that I have made a living from it. There, I’m fine, I’m happy. It really helped me to let go. »