Four Stuyvesant High School students decided to publish their shared teenage
journal—in their own handwriting, with photos and doodles included. Susan Lehman
spoke to diarists Julia Baskin, Lindsey Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, and
Courtney Toombs, who are now college freshmen, about their book, The Notebook
"Why did you write this book?
Courtney: We never wrote any of this intending it to be published.
This is our diary.
Julia:We wrote the diary as a way to get closer. We
thought we could be genuinely good friends. The notebook was a fun way to keep
Lindsey: Once we found out we were going to publish it, we
had to stop writing because there is no way to write a diary knowing someone
will read it and still sound like yourself.
Why would you want to publish your diary?
Lindsey: A lot of
people—parents and adults—are interested in knowing about kids’ lives, not
specifically ours. Everyone goes through adolescence and high school. It’s kind
of cool that we get to present our perspective on things.
What I hope parents get out of it is that just because your kids seem like
they are getting grades or have friends, they might be going through things that
are hard and that are troubling. And just because your kids smoke pot, it’s not
the end of the world; they’re not bad kids.
Julia: The notebook sends
an important message: You can be experimental, not be a prude or a goody
two-shoes and still be a responsible person…"