The Sisterhood of the Traveling Diary

A woman mailed her journal to a stranger, who wrote in it, then passed it along

- Sydney Page

KYRA PERALTE THOUGHT keeping a diary during the pandemic might help her sort out her tangled feelings. In April 2020, the mother of two in Montclair, New Jersey, started writing candidly about the challenges of juggling work, marriage and motherhood during a global crisis.

Writing was cathartic, but Peralte, now 46, wanted to know how other women were doing. So she made an unusual offer. She invited women from near and far to fill the remaining lined pages of her black-and-white marbled composition notebook with their own pandemic tales. She dubbed the project The Traveling Diary.

"I wanted an interaction that felt human," Peralte says, "and it feels very human to read someone else's writing."

She found her first contributor during a Zoom conference for entrepreneurs. When she mentioned the diary, a woman in North Carolina immediately said she would like to write in it.

From there, Peralte posted an article about her idea on Medium in an effort to get more women involved. So many wanted to participate that Peralte decided to create a website (thetravelingdiarytour.com) for people to add their names to the queue. She came up with a system: Each person gets to keep the diary for three days and fill as many pages as she wishes. Then she is responsible for mailing it to the next person, whose address Peralte provides.

So far, more than 2,000 women from 30 countries have participated, some as far away as South Africa and Australia. Of course, not all those entries could fit in just one journal. More than 50 of these notebooks are currently in circulation, and about 20 completed ones are back in Peralte's possession, including the original diary with her first entry, about navigating pandemic life and reconnecting with family.