When 14-year-old Amber Peterman wrote a diary about a day in her life in Perry, she didn’t think anyone would want to read it — let alone make it part of a national radio broadcast.

But National Public Radio asked the Perry-Lecompton High School freshman if her diary could be included in a series about Kansas that begins airing today.

“I don’t think that my life would interest anyone but if they can get something out of it, then it’s cool,” Peterman said.

Her diary is one of several stories that will be featured in “Prairie Diaries,” a seven-part radio program about the lives of Kansans. NPR will air each part on consecutive Mondays and end on Thursday, Nov. 27.

The diaries were not originally written for NPR, said Maeve McGoran, the network’s commentary editor.

The entries were part of “A Day in My Community,” a project by the Kansas Association for Family & Community Education. On Oct. 11, 2001, more than 5,000 Kansans, including Peterman, kept a diary for a day, McGoran said. Residents submitted their entries, which are now being archived by the Kansas State Historical Society.

When McGoran heard about the project, she said she wanted to read all of the journal entries.

The Leawood woman said she liked the stories so much that she recorded some participants reading their diaries and some background sounds from their homes.

“The whole idea was very appealing,” McGoran said. “It’s just average, regular people talking about an array of aspects of their life. They just told very compelling stories.”

In one story, a black man describes his family’s move to a predominantly white suburb of Kansas City and how they go to an urban church to keep his children’s culture alive.

Amber Peterman, Perry, 14, poses with her essay about a day in her life that she wrote during her seventh-grade English class. National Public Radio will broadcast Peterman reading her essay, along with an interview, next week.

In Peterman’s story, which is to air Oct. 27, she talks about how Perry, which is west of Lawrence, is slower-paced and a little more sheltered than other places in America.

The best part of this series is that it allows people from other parts of the United States to learn more about Kansas, said Phil Wilke, media manager for Kansas Public Radio.

“There’s a lot that goes on in the heartland that people on the coast are not aware of,” Wilke said. “There are good stories and vibrant lives being lived here. I hope that the wider “Morning Edition” audience gets a glimpse at life that they are not familiar with.”

For anyone who doesn’t know about Perry, Peterman suggests that people listen to her “Perry diary.”

• NPR Morning Edition
• “A Day in My Community”

“It’s an accurate title,” she said. “We’re not all a bunch of cowboys and not everyone in Kansas rides on horses. I don’t live in a big city but I don’t live on a farm, either.”