Photo by Amy Frost

Frank Warren talks about secrets that were never published to a packed crowd in the Oklahoma Memorial Union Wednesday night. Afterwards Warren invited audience members to come and speak and ask questions or share their secrets.

Frank Warren talks about secrets that were never published to a packed crowd in the Oklahoma Memorial Union Wednesday night. Afterwards Warren invited audience members to come and speak and ask questions or share their secrets. Amy Frost/The Daily

The power of secrets was on display Wednesday night for close to 800 people who crowded into the Molly Shi Boren Ballroom.

Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret, visited OU to discuss his project, in which people anonymously mail postcards containing their secrets directly to his home. Warren scans and uploads the cards online to Postsecret.blogspot.com, and he also has published four books containing the postcards he has received.

He said the idea to start the project came to him because he grew up in a family where there were secrets, both ones that he knew and ones that he did not.

“Maybe not knowing all those secrets eventually led me to this quest,” he said.

The music video for the All American Rejects’ song “Dirty Little Secret,” played on a large projector screen and the standing-room-only crowd erupted into cheers and applause as Warren was introduced on stage.

“Hi, my name’s Frank, and I collect secrets,” Warren said, who carried with him a small box containing a few of the postcards he has received since he started the project four years ago.

He said he thinks everyone should keep secrets in a box like the one he was holding, and every day each person can either choose to bury it like a coffin or open it and share the secrets like gifts.

One of the secrets the box contained was written on a hotel room card key. Warren said the secret was, “Amanda, you suck at being in love.” Another one of the secrets came from an airport baggage handler, Warren said. That secret read, “You called me an idiot, so I sent your bags to the wrong destination.”

Warren said he carries that one with him when he travels because it reminds him always to treat people with respect.

Madison Blocker, international security studies sophomore, is a member of the CAC Speaker’s Bureau, the group that brought Warren to Oklahoma.

“We’ve been wanting to bring him for a long time,” Blocker said. “This is something we all share a passion for.”

Meteorology junior Kelsey Mulder attended the speech, and has been a fan of PostSecret since learning about it through a friend two years ago.

“I really like the funny ones, like, ‘I drool a lot,’” Mulder said.

Not all of the secrets are humorous. Warren said a secret that affected him was one he received on a postcard of the World Trade Center towers. The card read, “Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I’m dead.”

Warren projected some of the secrets he received that were censored out of his books on the large screen, and he also asked some members of the audience to stand up and share their secrets, which he said was his favorite part of making speeches.

He said he thinks the project has become so popular because it exposes faults and insecurities everybody has.

“I feel as though I’ve tapped into something that has been there forever,” he said.