Oh Dear

There are fewer things more unsettling than revisiting those awkward teenage years. But former junkie and Vice scribe Lesley Arfin decided to make her diary entries public. In 2001, Arfin began contributing her "Dear Diary” column to Vice, revealing her innermost thoughts from the age of 12 and updating them with amusing commentary as well as interviews with the people in her life: parents, "frenemies,” crushes and drug buddies. Now compiled, Dear Diary reads like Pretty in Pink morphing into Requiem for a Dream, with a brutally candid Arfin sharing her transformation from an insecure pubescent (nicknamed "Barfin Arfin”) into a thieving, promiscuous addict. Often jaw-dropping and consistently engrossing, if you thought your sister’s diary was worth cracking the lock for, you ain’t seen nothing yet.