History Main / SecretDiary

* ''Literature/IWantToEatYourPancreas'': The plot is kicked off when the protagonist discovers Sakura Yamauchi's secret journal, the ''Disease Coexistence Journal'' (''Living with Dying'' in the animated film) detailing her thoughts on her [[IllGirl terminal pancreatic disease]] in a hospital waiting room.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'' there is an episode where Jonesy finds Jen's diary at the lost and found. Kaitlin starts reading it out loud at the fountain.

* ''Manga/{{Touch}}'': In an early chapter, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tatsuya]] found Minami's diary. Later [[{{Tsundere}} Minami]] accused him of reading her diary. Tatsuya swore that he did not, and it is left ambiguous whether he did or did not. The next day Minami confessed to Tatsuya what it was true what was written in her diary [[spoiler:and she is in love with him...]] Tatsuya got so flustered that she realized that he had NOT read it, so she backpedaled and claimed that she had only written bad things about him.

* In the mystery novel The Short Drop, a man finds a copy of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings that belonged to his close family friend, who has been missing ten years. The margins are completely full of multicolored notes. These turn out to be years' worth of coded messages to the people around her, using their favorite colors to clue them in. The main character and the missing woman's mother eventually decrypt the truth: [[spoiler: she disappeared because she was pregnant with her father's baby.]]

* In the mystery novel The Short Drop, a man finds a copy of The Lord of the Rings that belonged to his close family friend, who has been missing ten years. The margins are completely full of multicolored notes. These turn out to be years' worth of coded messages to the people around her, using their favorite colors to clue them in. The main character and the missing woman's mother eventually decrypt the truth: [[spoiler: she disappeared because she was pregnant with her father's baby.]]

See also {{Diary}}. LandlineEavesdropping fulfills a similar narrative role.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'': Shiki Tohno finds Makihisa Tohno's hidden diary, in which it is revealed that [[spoiler: the Tohno blood line contains demonic blood, that Akiha is one of those who has demonic traits, that Makihisa himself had a split personality, that Kohaku and Hisui are adopted synchronizers who can calm the demon blood [[DeuzSexMachina by exchanging bodily fluids]] and that there was indeed a third child with the same name as Shiki that was adopted after Makihisa wiped his clan out.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'': Shiki Tohno finds Makihisa Tohno's hidden diary, in which it is revealed that [[spoiler: the Tohno blood line contains demonic blood, that Akiha is one of those who has demonic traits, that Makihisa himself had a split personality, that Kohaku and Hisui are adopted synchronizers who can calm the demon blood [[RapeAsDrama by exchanging bodily fluids]] and that there was indeed a third child with the same name as Shiki that was adopted after Makihisa wiped his clan out.]]

* The infamous diaries of British Conservative politician, compulsive womanizer, and professional MagnificentBastard Alan Clark were a straight example while he was writing them. Once he was safely retired he [[DefiedTrope sold them to a publisher]] and sat back to enjoy the show as various colleagues in government, journalists, and other public figures were allowed to learn what he ''really'' thought of them.

* In ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'' almost all of [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Stephanie Brown]]'s narration boxes are excerpts from the secret journal she keeps relating to crime-fighting. Amusingly the secret journal that is found and becomes a plot point comes out of nowhere and belongs to ''Tim'' (who was never at any point seen or mentioned as keeping one) and reveals Bruce's secret id to his dad. This incredibly dangerous and ill-considered journal containing highly classified information disappears from continuity just as abruptly as it entered and was never mentioned again.

--->'''Lister''': So you've read my diary.
--->'''Rimmer''': Yes, but at least I have the common decency to do it sneakily behind your back.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode "Little Yellow Book" has Squidward finding [=SpongeBob=]'s diary and spilling out his secrets to everyone.

* William Sleator's ''Others See Us'' uses two stolen diaries as the MacGuffin, with the inversion that the thief didn't steal them to read them, because [[spoiler:she's telepathic and knows the contents already]].

%%* The book ''Click Here To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade'' is somewhat centered around this trope.

* Happens in Charlotte [=MacLeod=]'s novel ''The Family Vault''. [[spoiler: Caroline Kelling, blind and deaf, embroiders her diary on drapes with the equivalent of Braille.]]
* Also happens in Charlotte [=MacLeod=]'s novel ''Vane Pursuit'', in which Elisa Alicia Quatrefages keeps one.
* Zan's entire experience in Norma Fox Mazer's ''Saturday, the Twelfth of October'' is set off by her wise-ass brother reading her intimate diary to his friends. At the end, Zan is still writing diary notes but wisely stores them in a bank deposit vault.
* In J.R. Lowell's ''Daughter of Darkness'', Willie Connolly's journal is mentioned very early on. A practitioner of RitualMagic since the age of eight, she keeps her book with her paraphernalia locked in a desk drawer. Her anthropologist Uncle Jonathan knows about the BlackMagic spell she cast on her father's fiancée. Sure enough, he discovers the drawer, breaks into it and reads the journal, taking it with all the evidence to show her father. Unfortunately for him, Willie is [[AstralProjection invisibly sitting nearby]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama Island'' episode "Not Quite Famous", Heather read Gwen's diary aloud on national television to humiliate her. Notably, even [[{{Sadist}} Chris]] considers this a low blow.

* One wonders why Paige Fox of ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' even bothers trying to keep a diary when Peter and Jason constantly read it openly. Jason has gone so far as to post excerpts from her diary online and has even written in it (apparently on multiple occasions) a confession to really being an ugly alien being.

* ''Manga/WanderingSon'' has a shared secret diary between the eleven-year-old main characters Shuuichi and Yoshino, in which they write to another about their various {{trans|gender}} experiences. When a boy gets ahold of the diary and passes it around, both kids in general and Shuuichi in particular are ostracized. They start a new one not too long after.

* UsefulNotes/MarieCurie wrote diary notes for about six weeks after her husband Pierre's tragic death. For her biography ''Madame Curie'', Marie's daughter Eve transcribed a few entries. But there's much more in the recent biographies ''Marie Curie: A Life'' by Susan Quinn and ''Obsessive Genius, the Inner World of Marie Curie'' by Barbara Goldsmith. Most of these notes are written in the form of letters to Pierre, and Marie was not being metaphorical; she intended for him to read them. She and Pierre were intrigued by spiritualism, attending more than one SpookySeance accompanied by renowned chemist Sir William Crookes, who was also head of the British Society for Psychic Research. When Marie was rejected by the French Academy of Sciences[[note]]she'd already discovered radium and its usefulness at this point; the rejection was due in large part to right-wing factions and the standing policy that "women cannot be in the Institute of France" no matter what lifesaving discovery they made[[/note]] she felt Pierre come to her and tell her not to worry, she would be elected next time.[[note]]He was wrong. She never got in. It took the Academy until 1962 to finally induct a woman; Marie's student Marguerite Perey, a French physicist who discovered the element francium.[[/note]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' when the Allied Forces (America, England, France, Russia, and China) obtain Germany's diary and read it hoping to gain knowledge of how to defeat the Axis Powers (North Italy, Germany, and Japan). Instead they find that all of the entries are about [[NoSocialSkills Germany's]] [[TheComicallySerious bewilderment]] with [[TheDitz North Italy's]] behavior.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/secret_diary.jpg]]]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' when the Allied Forces (America, England, France, Russia and China) obtain Germany's diary, and read it hoping to gain knowledge of how to defeat the Axis Powers (North Italy, Germany and Japan). Instead they find that all of the entries are about [[NoSocialSkills Germany's]] [[TheComicallySerious bewilderment]] with [[TheDitz North Italy's]] behavior.

* ''Manga/{{Touch}}'': In an early chapter, [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Tatsuya]] found Minami's diary. Later [[{{Tsundere}} Minami]] accused him of reading her diary. Tatsuya swore that he did not, and it is left ambiguous whether he did or did not. The next day Minami confessed to Tatsuya what it was true what was written on her diary [[spoiler:and she is in love with him...]] Tatsuya got so flustered that she realized that he had NOT read it, so she backpedaled and claimed that she had only written bad things about him.

* In ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'' almost all of [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Stephanie Brown]]'s narration boxes are excerpts the secret journal she keeps relating to crime fighting. Amusingly the secret journal that is found and becomes a plot point comes out of nowhere and belongs to ''Tim'' (who was never at any point seen or mentioned as keeping one) and reveals Bruce's secret id to his dad. This incredibly dangerous and ill considered journal containing highly classified information disappears from continuity just as abruptly as it entered and was never mentioned again.

* One wonders why Paige Fox of ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' even bothers trying to keep a diary when Peter and Jason constantly read it openly. Jason has go so far as to post excerpts from her diary online and has even written in it (apparently on multiple occasions) a confession to really being an ugly alien being.
* ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'': Lisa kept one of these when she was a teen-ager, as revealed during the storyline involving ex-boyfriend Frankie Pierce and his efforts to produce a reality show about a reunion with their biological son, Darrin Fairgood (with the real aim souring the memory of Lisa).

* ''Manga/{{Evangelion 303}}'': [[OriginalCharacter Jessika]] wrote down in her diary all her private fantasies about [[FieryRedhead Asuka]]. Her girlfriend read it, mistakenly thought that Jessika had been unfaithful and mailed the pages to Asuka in chapter 11. Shinji, knowing that Jessika would not want to share that with anybody, burnt them.

* ''Film/ThePrincessDiaries'' had a scene which Mia Thermopolis received her personal diary (as a young princess) after she got the locket from her paternal grandmother earlier (hence the name of the ''Franchise/DisneyPrincess'' movie), renaming it as "Mia's Diary".

* Zan's entire experience in Norma Fox Mazer's ''Saturday, the Twelfth of October'' is set off by her wise-ass brother reading her intimate diary to his friends. At the end Zan is still writing diary notes, but wisely stores them in a bank deposit vault.

* Spoofed in one of the Kangaroo stories by Creator/MarcUweKling where the Kangaroo writes a diary to no other purpose then to "confess" doing something the narrator already suspects him of in order to invoke a violation of privacy when he is unavoidably found out.

* ''Series/H2OJustAddWater'': Cleo initially keeps a diary about her newfound mermaid powers. Her sister Kim finds it and tries to expose the girls' secret. Kim mistakenly thinks Miriam is a mermaid too and when she realises her mistake, Cleo pretends the diary was just a school assignment about rewriting fairy tales, and destroys it after.

-->'''Lister''': So you've read my diary.
-->'''Rimmer''': Yes, but at least I have the common decency to do it sneakily behind your back.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/DerryGirls''. The first episode begins with a very serious narration about life growing up in the conflict, only for a cut out to reveal Erin being angry at her annoying younger cousin Orla for stealing and reading her diary. Later in the same episode the diary is confiscated and read by a nun at school, and Erin tries to steal it back as soon as she can.

* In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World'' for DS, a snooty female character sometimes finds (buried underground) diary owned by someone else (most likely a normal female). She asks you if it is ok to read that. If you say so, you are asked where to start.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'', Linda reveals that she reads Tina's diary. She says she mostly skims it to make sure she's not on drugs. Helpfully, Tina writers "I'm not on drugs" in the book.

* The infamous diaries of British Conservative politician, compulsive womanizer and professional MagnificentBastard Alan Clark were a straight example while he was writing them. Once he was safely retired he [[DefiedTrope sold them to a publisher]] and sat back to enjoy the show as various colleagues in government, journalists and other public figures were allowed to learn what he ''really'' thought of them.