The Diary of a Teenage Girl tells the coming-of-age story of Minnie Goetze, a 15-year-old girl growing up in the ’60s. The film, which stars Bel Powley and Kristen Wiig, recieved great reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. We’re definitely excited for the portrayal of a female’s forays into sex, love, drugs and adulthood.
But while we’re waiting for its August premiere, we decided to round up all the benefits of having your own Diary of a Girl. (The girl = YOU!)
Watch the first trailer for Diary of a Teenage Girl here:
Being an avid journaler myself, I can tell you that keeping a diary in your 20s isn’t the same as the velvet Lisa Frank one where you wrote “Mrs. [Your Crush’s Last Name]”. In a world where the practice of writing is becoming as irrelevant as T9 texting and whoever John Mayer is currently dating, here are all the reasons you should keep a personal diary.
1. It Forces You to Organize Your Thoughts
In your own head, your thoughts and feelings are a stream of consciousness—there’s no organization or timeline of events. Your mind is free to jump from topic to topic. When you’re writing, you’re forced to organize your thoughts into cohesive sentences and ideas that tell a story or explain a situation. In the process, you’re forced to reflect on how you actually feel and put how you’re feeling into words. This can be helpful when you’re trying to make a decision or solve a problem. The act of writing makes things clearer.
2. It’s Gives You Something Productive to Do
It’s easy enough to make time for writing in your day-to-day life. You can make it a part of your ritual—you can write during your commute, during breakfast, before bed. It’s something productive you can do instead of scrolling past the point on your Instagram feed you know you’ve already scrolled through. Writing is something you can do while you’re on the train or waiting for a friend at a café.
3. It Makes You a Better Writer
While you might not be signing, sealing and delivering any hand-written letters with postage on them any time soon, we still communicate with words on a daily basis. Text messages, Twitter profiles, and e-mails require writing skills, attention to detail and to the flow of words. Writing in a journal helps with this.
4. It’s Cathartic
Writing is soothing. It’s therapeutic. It provides emotional relief the same way a good cry or rant to your best friend does. Expressive writing has both emotional and physical benefits: it can reduce stress, improve your mood and overall psychological well-being.
5. Writing is Good for Your Memory
Numerous studies have proven that hand writing notes is better for learning. It’s good cognitive exercise and increases the ability to retain information.
..and Good for Your Memories
Writing is a way to physically preserve your memories. While photos are sentimental, they can’t convey the same intimacy or tell the same cohesive story as your own narrative can. After a few months or years of journaling, you’ll be able to look back at the notebooks you’ve filled and realize you have a written history of your own life and experiences.
