"Take what was once your shame and own it..."

If you haven't heard of Get Mortified before, please go here and relish in the awesomeness that is teen angst on display. (Think TED talks in reverse AKA former teenager/adults who saved their journals and aren't afraid to read them aloud even though they're totally awful and embarrassing and, yet, TOTALLY relatable because most of us were assholes when we were teenagers. And I say that with the utmost love.)

Me @ 14 

Get Mortified's catchphrase = ANGST WRITTEN and indeed it is. Indeed everything written in a journal is to some degree.

Anyway.

Today, after years of organizing Mortified shows, the Mortified Nation documentary is being released into the world. Here's the trailer:

And, because I happen to have saved every journal I ever put a pen to from 1st grade on, I decided to share a couple of entries with you today because they're insane. And kind of awesome in this very raw, THIS IS WHO I WAS TYPOS AND ALL way. I have hundreds of journal entries and two entire notebooks devoted to "speeches and presentations" including break-up speeches, "screw you for dumping me" speeches and my personal favorite, a "speach" called "Youth Today and its Relation to Partying , Drugs, Alchohol, Ect," which I gave to my mother after I got into trouble for hanging out behind 7-11 where marijuana was being smoked, Zima was being sipped and Dead Kennedys were being blasted from the boom box. (I wrote my mom a lot of crazy letters over the years. This one still wins, I think.)

And here lies a journal entry describing a typical summer afternoon, hanging with my BFF, pretending to be a stripper, buying a "car" with my hard-earned "money" and 11:11 make a wish. (I have no idea why the sync is off on these videos. I tried to fix it and then I gave up.) 

Please feel free to laugh/not laugh and/or share your own "Mortified" video/post link in the comments below in order to win a collection of motley things. They are:

1. A signed copy of Rockabye
2. Assorted Fragrances by Demeter
3. Drawings by: Archer & Fable
4. My favorite shaving cream that I buy in bulk because I always run out of it.
5. An old CD from my high school collection. (Anything but The Stealing Beauty Soundtrack. That one's mine 4 lyf.)
6. A surprise from the "take home" table at Hal's work.
7. A children's book chosen at random from our bookshelf.
8. Maybe something else. I have no idea. This list is insane as is so I'll stop.

***

I'll choose one winner next Wednesday, November 13th. Don't forget to read WITH FEELING! Let's do this! Can't wait to hear your words!

It's time to OWN THAT SHAME, PEOPLE! Or, if you prefer, watch others own theirs. (Mortified Nation is available to watch today in the US, UK, and Canada, on iTunes, Amazon, and other E-tailers.)

UPDATED: Congrats to Donna, Justine and Jori for being such amazing sports and submitting Mortified moments! You will all be getting a care package of random items you will hopefully enjoy.

80085,

GGC