Here, the author looks at four diaries, more specifically three conventional diaries and a blog: "The Diary of a Young Girl," by Anne Frank; "Zlata's Diary," by Zlata Filipovic; and "Last Night I Dreamed of Peace" by Dang Thuy Tram. "Baghdad Burning" is the transcript of a web log, a blog, by a young Iraqi woman who went by the pseudonym Riverbend. The author's thesis is that these are not merely adolescent scribblings, romantic fantasy, naive reminiscences and wishes--the stereotypical and so-called girl's diary. These are intentional, ultimately public texts, and educators can learn to use that intentionality in their writing and to help their students make the transition from expressive and private discourse to the kind of public text that has the power to elicit action and create change. Diaries provide readers with ways of being in the world through words. As they write themselves into their own worlds, they are also writing themselves into the readers' world, readers' consciousness, readers' conscience.