Gone are the days of hiding your diary at the bottom of your underwear drawer. Now the innermost thoughts and feelings of today’s teens are safely tucked away — online.

It seems to go against the whole notion of a diary, but Internet sites like freeopendiary.com and diaryland.com are where many teens post their daily entries.

Lauren Bornstein, a Free State High School senior, has two.

“I use the one at freeopendiary the most. I haven’t touched my other one in a while,” she said.

Opening an online diary is easy and usually free. Writers choose a name and password and fill out general information about themselves.

Although sites request age and location, offering them is not required. Freeopendiary.com even has a policy that any entries or diaries that give out full names, street addresses, phone numbers or e-mail addresses will be deleted.

The diarist also can control what entries are available to the public or who can see them.

“If (what I wrote) is really serious, I can label it ‘Private.’ Then I’ll go back and read it and be like, ‘Why was I so stressed out?'” Bornstein said.

Members have the option of keeping a public, private or semiprivate diary. In a semiprivate diary, members can choose entries they wish to make public or make their diary available for only members to view. Many diarists choose the option of giving friends their username and password so they are able to read the latest entry.

“It’s fun to have your friends leave comments and advice for you. It’s a good way to stay in touch with them outside of school,” Bornstein said. “We hardly ever talk on the phone anymore. Now we IM (instant message) or use our diaries.”

Members of both freeopendiary.com and diaryland.com also can set up their page to look any way they would like. Links to other Web sites, pictures and music can be added. Another appealing feature is the delete key: In a traditional diary, the only way to get rid of an embarrassing entry is to rip out the page. In an online diary, members can go back in to reword entries or erase them.

Lauren Bornstein, a Free State High School senior, uses the Internet to post her diary online. She can set preferences to make the diary open to all readers or to a few select friends. Pictured above at home, Lauren has set her screen at a site with one of her most recent excerpts.

What Bornstein enjoys the most about her diary is the notes that other online diarists leave for her. When Bornstein posts a message, others who read it can leave their thoughts on what she wrote.

“It’s nice to have comments and input. Sometimes someone else can help you or just say they understand,” Bornstein said.

By the same token, Bornstein also browses other member’s diary entries.

“I like to leave advice. It makes me feel like I’ve done a good deed,” she said.

While Bornstein prefers using her online diary, she confesses that she still keeps a traditional diary.

But she won’t say where she hides it.