Sitemap - 2025 - Open Secrets Magazine

How to Write More Compelling Memoirs and Personal Essays by Embracing Messy Middles

How Hurricane Katrina Upended My Family’s Life

Object-ives #2: Art That Toasts to a Friendship Beyond Most

In the Patriarchy, No One Can Hear You Scream

Sphynx Cat: How I Learned to Appreciate Having Alopecia

The Reality of Being a Flight Attendant

September 2025 Open Secrets Book Club Pick: 'The Loneliness Files' by Athena Dixon

From Dropout to Journalist…In Prison

How Firefighting Saved My Life

I Was a Bigoted Speech Therapist

Is ADHD Why I Have Trouble Taking Real Vacations?

Watch: Q&A with Brenden O’Donnell on Dating a Gay Catholic Celibate Man, Relationships, and Spirituality

I’m Childfree, But Not by Choice

Radical Pleasure: Why I Keep a Good Things Jar

How to Respond to People Who Read What You Write

Big News: New Managing Editor, Book Club, Live Q&As, and Paid Subscriber Chats

An Extremely Close Encounter with a Gay Catholic Celibate

Object-ives #1: 'The Compleat Astrologer’s Sun-Signs Guide' Is My Most Treasured Book

Not Sure If He’s the One? Take Him to Taco Bell

Paid Call for Submissions for Personal Essays by Humans About the Human Experience (No AI Writing Allowed)

In Grief, Mornings Were the Most Difficult Part of My Day Until I Remembered This

How ADHD Turns Success into Failure

Andrea Gibson Saved My Life with Their Instagram Updates on Their Cancer Journey

Sometimes It’s Not Jealousy. It Just May Be a Sign to Redirect

Why Your “Failed” Essays Are Actually Working

Everything is Temporary, Except My Downloads

I Navigated the Grief of My Second Trimester Miscarriage by Widely Sharing My Story

The Summer Everything Got Hotter

As An Air Force Cadet, I Did Something Taboo

What If I Let My Intrusive Thoughts Win?

How Leaning into Solitude and Softness Isn’t Selfish, It’s Necessary

I'm a Thriller Author Who Figured Out the Secret to Actually Selling Books

Collecting the Dead: My Closet Is a Pet Cemetery

When Is Your Writing “Good Enough?”

Will My Sex Life Be Lost When I No Longer Have a Uterus?

My Father Was Never a Dad

Never a Bridesmaid, Kind of a Bride

Confronting a Second Grade Bully at Age Forty

The Ethics of Writing Essays About Real People

Relinquishing the Baggage from My First Marriage

I’m A Professional Tarot Reader Who Thinks “Twin Flames” Need to Be Snuffed Out

Radical Pleasure: Athena Dixon on How Stepping Outside of Your Body Is the Best Way to Gain Freedom

How I Joined a Cult Without Knowing It

I'm a Tesla-Driving Liberal

I Tried Speed Dating, and It Was Weird

Motherhood Is a Surprise Performance. This Was My Audition.

Is Water Quality So Bad That I Shouldn’t Let My Kids Play in Our Local Creeks?

Dear Daddy Advice Column May 2025: Am I a Bad Person Because I Can’t Forgive Someone Who Was Cruel to Me Now That They’re Dying?

I Botched Mother’s Day Again

911: What Led to My Bipolar Diagnosis

The ADHD Diaries: Why I Always Succumb to the Allure of Procrastination (and Then Hate Myself for It)

Meet Our Speakers for Our First Event, Personal Storytelling Summit Open Secrets Live on May 3 in New York

How Painting a Mural for My Baby’s Early Life Made Me a Better Doctor for Patients at the End of Theirs

How to Fill Your Creative Well as a Writer

Lights, Policy, Climate Action!

The Ties that Bind: Rape as a Job Hazard

Radical Pleasure: Athena Dixon on How Anger is a Necessary Part of Pleasure

My Body is a Traitor, So I Was Prescribed the Weight-Loss Drug Zepbound

My Online Gaming Addiction Started with Playing Scrabble on Facebook

My Three Great Loves Are My Record Collection, My Dog, and My Husband

BIG GIVEAWAY To Celebrate Two Years of Publishing Powerful Personal Essays!

Dear Daddy Advice Column April 2025: I Have an OnlyFans Account and Don't Know Whether to Tell My Boyfriend About It

How I Realized I’m Asexual

What It Feels Like to Live in “Satan’s Ashtray” During Smoke Season

Silencing the Inner Critic to Get Your Words on the Page

How an ADHD Memoir Helped Me Stop Feeling Guilty About Not Promoting My Short Story Collection

How a Health Scare Led Me to Love My Liver

Radical Pleasure: How Embracing Joy Helped Me Overcome Fear

How to Be a Caregiver to Aging, Difficult Parents

As a Mom of a Sick Child, I Couldn’t Bear to Lose My Child’s Stuffed Bunny

Dear Daddy Advice Column March 2025: Do You Need an MFA to Get Your Novel Published?

How an Adoption-Focused Instagram Account Helped Me Feel Seen

Finding the Funny, Writing the Truth

He-Man’s Ripped Muscles Fueled My Eating Disorder and Body Dysmorphia

Radical Pleasure: How to Reconceptualize Valentine’s Day, Love, and Romance

I'm a Single Black American Woman Dating in Europe

The ADHD Diaries: It's Amazing I've Ever Accomplished Anything Because I'm Always Distracted

Maybe I Am Lovable

Cold Comfort: On Learning to Love Cold-Water Swimming

Dear Daddy Advice Column February 2025: How to Navigate Ethical Non-Monogamy and Polyamory

The Romanticization of the Organic Meet Cute

I’m 33, and I’m Deeply, Deeply Tired of Being Single

Radical Pleasure, Volume 1

From Abortion to Acupuncture

How to Get Your Personal Essay Published in Open Secrets Magazine

Paid Call for Personal Essays on Climate Change and Climate Issues

Writing Queer Romance as an Exploration of My Own Queerness

Digging in the Dirt: Facing My Mother’s Hoarder House

Early Bird Tickets on Sale Now for Open Secrets Live on May 3, 2025 in New York City

How I Learned to Be Vulnerable After Growing Up in a Religious Cult

Dear Daddy Advice Column, January 2025: How to Figure Out If You're Straight or Bisexual