This 15-year-old is behind Tumblr’s newest obsession

When 15-year-old Emily started the Dear My Blank Tumblr in March, she had no idea how many people it would reach. She wanted the blog to be a place for people to write letters that they can never send, kind of like Post Secret but over the Internet. Within the first week, the Ohio teen received 300 submissions.

Emily talked to BuzzFeed News about the supportive community that has developed within her Tumblr. She told the site that she’s been writing unsent letters of her own to her parents, teachers, and crushes, and created Dear My Blank to see if there were other Tumblr users who did the same thing. Emily was surprised by the response.

“One of the first submissions I received I felt like it was straight out of my life, like I could have written it,” she said. Emily also told BuzzFeed that some letters have put her own unspoken emotions into the perfect words. In one instance, she was harbouring a one-sided crush on one of her best friends and received a submission from someone going through a really similar situation.

Emily reads through submissions and updates the site regularly. The posts range from mysterious one-liners to gushing rants, happiness to hopelessness, heart-warming to heart-broken. Users re-blog and send encouraging notes to each other, sometimes including advice if they recognize their own experience in the posts. Emily, through Dear My Blank, has built a safe community for sharing emotional secrets, and it’s seriously making a difference in many people’s lives. The blog is also an important reminder that no one is alone.

“No matter how isolating what you’re going through may be, someone somewhere has gone through it too and knows exactly what you’re feeling,” Emily said. “It’s easy to forget that.”

If you are interested in posting your own Dear My Blank, visit the submissions page here.

(Image via here.)