New York Times best seller Frank Warren came to the University to present his multimedia presentation, PostSecret Live, Monday night.

Kappa Alpha Theta was the main co-sponsor of the event along with the Illini Union Board, which was held at Foellinger Auditorium.

The main concept of PostSecret is for anonymous people to mail their secrets that have never been revealed to Warren on handmade postcards.

There are no restrictions on what secrets people can share and some are then posted on the PostSecret website or used for the PostSecret books.

“I’ve been called the most trusted stranger,” Warren said when describing his experience dealing with people’s biggest secrets.

PostSecret Live is a multi-media presentation Warren has done worldwide and at several college campuses. In his presentation, Warren talked about some of the secrets published in the book, secrets that were banned from the book and funny, exciting stories he encountered while putting together the publication. Warren also discussed his latest book, “PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God.”

The event began with Warren sharing his own secrets. He described dealing with abuse and several attempts of suicide throughout his adolescent years.

Nicole Vail, freshman in Engineering, and Cristina Chavez, freshman in LAS, said hearing Warren’s secrets was the best part of the event.

“I also like the part where he shared his own secrets,” Chavez said. “I also liked the part where people had the courage to share their own secrets because it just shows how united we all are.”

Warren also talked about his experience creating PostSecret. In 2004, he began walking around Washington D.C. asking people to share their deepest, darkest secrets. After receiving several different responses, he decided to start a website asking viewers to send in their secrets on a postcard.

“I had accidently tapped into something full of mystery and wonder,” he said. “Something I still don’t understand today.”

He first started receiving two postcards a day. After a month, he was receiving close to a million. Although the book does not publish every single postcard, Warren took the time during the presentation to go through some of the postcards that did not get published.

Warren talked about a few of the deepest postcards he had received during his career. The topics of those included suicide attempts, abusive relationships, illnesses and death.

“There are two kinds of secrets,” Warren said when referring to these deeper secrets. “There are the kind we keep from others and the kind we keep from ourselves.”

At the end of the event, Warren allowed the audience members to share their secrets with everyone.

Yele can be reached at [email protected].