History Main / SecretDiary

** The episode "Lost in Language" has Luz coming across [[Characters/TheOwlHouseAmityBlight Amity Blight's]] diary and having to stop Amity's siblings from stealing it, only for the pages to spill on the floor and narrate all her secrets due to [[ArtInitiatesLife the magic of the Wailing Star]] [[NotWhatItLooksLike right as Amity comes in]].

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' reveals that Marinette keeps a diary where she writes everything, including her exploits as Ladybug. When Tikki points out how dangerous this is, Marinette reveals that she built a box to store it in that's booby-trapped to slam down and trap the hand of anyone that tries to take the diary -- which Sabrina finds out the hard way when she tries to steal it on Chloé's orders.

** The episode "Lost in Language" has Luz coming across Amity's diary and having to stop Amity's siblings from stealing it, only for the pages to spill on the floor and narrate all her secrets due to [[ArtInitiatesLife the magic of the Wailing Star]] [[NotWhatItLooksLike right as Amity comes in]].
** Luz has a video diary with entries dating back to [[spoiler:before her father died]]. It ends up becoming a vital plot point in "Thanks to Them" when her mother accidentally sees the latest entry and learns about [[spoiler:her plans to stay on Earth permanently out of guilt.]]

->''"Every one should have a diery. Becos life is too hard with the things one must say to be perlite and the things one must not say to lie."''
-->-- '''Iris Vaughn''', age eleven

* Slightly different set-up in ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'': Lt. Clancy is preparing a report on the rest of the team before leaving the force, and the others sneak into her apartment to read it.

* Music/{{Bread}} has the song "Diary". The singer sneaks a look at his beloved's diary, believing when she writes about her "true love" it's himself. When he discovers it's about someone else, he vows to [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy support their relationship]].

One character finds the secret diary of another character (almost AlwaysFemale), that contains all their [[DarkSecret darkest secrets]].

LandlineEavesdropping fulfills a similar narrative role.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', Darcy finds Yujin Oh's diary at the start of Week 8 and asks you to keep it instead of selling it. [[spoiler:Seon Gong, who was dismissed from AVAC for being exposed as a Fixerain fugitive, then visits you the next day and asks you to give to her so she can burn it, not wanting to see the truth about Yujin, who founded the organization.]]

** The episode "Lost in Language" has Luz coming across Amity's diary and having to stop Amity's siblings from stealing it, only for the pages to spill on the floor and narrate all her secrets due to [[ArtInitiatesLife the magic of the Wailing Star]] [[NotWhatItLooksLie right as Amity comes in]].

** Secrecy is averted in ''True Confessions'', when he sends his diaries to his American pen-pal Hamish Mancini, who then demands a glossary of the British references.

* By following hints in ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia'', players can find Kara's diary, which the game insists is secret. It's basically just an EasterEgg - there are no penalties or bonuses for reading it.

* In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World'' for DS, a snooty female character sometimes finds (buried underground) a 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.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' features numerous diaries for various {{NPC}}s, which [[PlayerCharacter Link]] can freely read at his leisure. The description for [[SmittenTeenageGirl Paya]]'s diary hangs a lampshade on this:
-->It looks like Paya's Diary.\\
Must not look...\\
Must not look...
* Averted in ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Beyond the Alley of the Dolls]]'', where you can have a conversation with [[spoiler:a former villain]] and ask to read his personal diary, since it may contain important information.
-->'''Max:''' Can we read it?! We promise to laugh at your bad poetry and schoolboy crushes!
** Not so surprisingly, he refuses. Sam comments that it probably wouldn't be useful anyway, because "[[spoiler: like any supervillain,]] his handwriting is as indecipherable as it is crazy".
* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'':
** In the games ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife A Wonderful Life]]'' and ''Another Wonderful Life'', you can read your child's diary where they write about their relationship with you, their career aspirations, etc.
** In all the ''Harvest Moon'' games "writing" in your diary is how you save the game.
* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' Irenicus keeps diaries about his experiences and to counteract his failing memory. They're the source of most of your information about him, as he feels "[[JustBetweenYouAndMe you warrant no villain's exposition from me]]".
* Subverted with Katy’s Diary in ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm''. It’s in a secret location, but the opening lines ''encourage'' the finder to read it, because she wants to share her story with fellow adventurers.
* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': One newlywed NPC keeps a secret lair with a diary that details his plan to marry for money and then murder his father-in-law to [[InheritanceMurder speed the inheritance]]. If the player chooses to save the father-in-law, they can give the diary to the wife to bypass the usual Persuasion test to convince her.

[[folder: Radio]]

* In the DistantEpilogue of the LDD-fanfic, ''Fanfic/BridgeToTerabithia2TheLastTime'', this is how Jess and Leslie found out their daughter had a crush on one of her classmates - when their son, during breakfast time, came running to his parents and reading his elder sister's diary aloud. HilarityEnsues when both siblings nearly gets into a fight at the dining table. It's one of the LighterAndSofter moments in what was mostly a DarkFic.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Lost in Language" has Luz coming across Amity's diary and having to stop Amity's siblings from stealing it.

For whatever reason, a lot of these "secret" diaries tend to be left open on the owner's desk instead of tucked away and locked somewhere, ripe and ready for snooping eyes. These circumstances usually play out in VideoGames, where the protagonist can easily access a character's private thoughts in a justified fashion in order to drive the plot or just exist as a juicy EasterEgg.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' shows that Buffy keeps a diary, or at least did in a Season 1 episode. And she promptly freaks out when she thinks Angel might have read it (he didn't).

** "Dear Diary" – From Season 4, Rosco uses his diary to document (surprisingly, very well and down to the last detail) Boss Hogg's criminal activities, and plans to keep it secret between him and Boss. However, two crooks that Boss had double-crossed years earlier learn about the diary, come to Hazzard and steal it, planning to turn Boss in once and for all, forcing Bo and Luke (who have also learned about the diary) to make a tough decision.
** "Go West, Young Dukes" – From the final season, although the only secrets exposed in this diary are those that clear up what really happened during a land transaction 100 years earlier by the ancestors of the Duke and Hogg families. Only Uncle Jesse knew about the diary beforehand, making the trope a literal interpretation.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold!'', "The Little Pink Book": Said book is Helga's diary. Helga removed and ate the page revealing her name, just before Arnold would have gotten to it.