The Ultimate Guide To Journaling For Teenagers (w/ Resources)

ultimate guide to journaling for teenagers

Want to get into journaling as a teenager, but don’t know where to start? Here’s the ultimate guide to journaling for teenagers!

Before we start, you should note that this was actually written by an incredible teenager (Mandy) who has poured her heart and soul into this article.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

“I haven’t written for a few days because I wanted, first of all, to think about my journal. It’s an odd idea for someone like me to keep a journal, not only because I’ve never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I, nor for that matter anyone else, ‘ll be interested in the unbosomings of a 13 year old schoolgirl. Still, what does it matter? I want to write. But more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.” – Anne Frank

As William Wordsworth beautifully said, “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart”, in today’s blog post, I’ll reveal all about journaling, something near and dear to my heart. 

Thanks to having journaled since barging in puberty, I’ve been surviving and thriving in my chaotic teenage years. 

So, I want to persuade, guide, inspire and motivate you to embark on your glamorous teen journaling voyage as well.

Let’s dive right in!

Why Should Teenagers Start Journaling?

how to start journaling for teenagers

Journaling should be the lifeline, the backbone of modern marvelous teens.

Here are a few benefits to journaling for teenagers:

  • Journaling helps to sort out your intermingled, complex feelings and thoughts.
  • Oftentimes, you get immersed in the figment of your imagination.
  • Sometimes, creepy and weird thoughts are racing 100 miles per hour in your mind. Eg, I could end up with the ideal job of staring at my Kpop idols, in other words, my future boyfriends, (I kind of prefer the latter) getting paid a million dollars monthly. Hey, don’t laugh. Who knows? Anything is possible.
  • At such times, you are so rich in motivational and inspirational spirits that you think you might soar up into the universe like a human version rocket.
  • You’ll be able to handle your mood swings and conceptions subtly.

Your thoughts are changing and your feelings are being messed up 24/7. It can be quite frustrating when you can’t even understand yourself.

Don’t you ever worry! Journaling is there in a flash. 

1) Journaling is a Collection of Teenage Memories

At some point in the future, you’ll stumble upon your old but gold journals, filled up with extraordinary teenage anecdotes. You’ll go through them and relive those precious tales

Occasionally, those memories will sneak out of your eyes and roll down your cheeks as you terribly miss them, but at the same time, you’ll be beaming in your tears because you’re thankful to your teen-self for assembling them.

2) Journaling is the Best Form of Pouring Out Your Heart

Sometimes, we just need someone to listen to what we’ve got to say without judgment, without criticism, without nosy curiosity, without disturbance. 

That someone can be your journal. 

Bear your heart to your beloved journal. It’s the safest place ever. It’s the best pair of ears listening attentively to whatever you say. 

Trust me, bearing your heat to your journal is extremely liberating and lively.

3) Journaling Improves Your Writing Skills

The only way to be able to write masterpieces is to write, write, and write some more. So, write in your journal every day. Journaling is a form of practicing and sharpening your writing skills.

Teenagers are caught in the vicious cycle of writing assorted essays, assignments, research papers, etc. 

Journaling for teenagers will let your brain run free and write with enjoyment, not hatred.

Being able to write elegantly with crystal clarity and value, is capable of getting your professors and teachers to sit up, heart melted, and score glowing marks on your projects.

4) Journaling Makes You Grateful

In this modern world where state-of-the-art materials are being invented and produced at a striking pace and volume, teenagers can’t help but long to possess all those fancy new iPhones, designer bags, trendy hoodies, you name it. You can’t blame us but our prevailing throwaway culture.

If you’re unsatisfied with what you currently have, why not start journaling? 

Journaling being a profound means of self-reflection, you’ll become grateful for your existence, your parents, your privileges, everything in your hands and around you.

Once, I was documenting how I spent time with my granny; fun activities we enjoyed, and ridiculous inside-jokes we laughed at. Suddenly, I came to realize how grateful I was to still have a loving granny. Since then, I’ve spent more time with my granny savoring each invaluable moment with her.

5) Journaling Urges You to Live the Most Out of Your Days

Obviously, you don’t want to journal about how you spent 2 hours aimlessly scrolling through social media and another 4 hours binge-watching Netflix, do you?

As you don’t want to record tedious, stupid things you do in a day, you’ll get out of your comfort zone and go on adventures, build sweet relationships and learn brand spanking new skills. 

Here are a few habits of journaling every day:

  • Makes you intentional about how you spend your day
  • Drives you to live your days productively, meaningfully, colorfully
  • Encourages you to check off your tasks on to-do list
  • Motivates you to wake up with determination and go to bed with satisfaction

6) Journaling is a Path to Self-Discovery

You, as a teenager, often feel lost, not knowing what you want to do with your life, and having no idea about your strengths and feeling like crap, right? 

I’ve been there, too. So, you’re not alone. And I’ve gone out of that stage by journaling.

By journaling, you’ll gain an insight into your own “self”. 

You’ll vividly see your preferences, priorities, and authentic, alive self that has been muted and buried under a pile of other people’s expectations and perceptions.

The accumulation of your journal entries can make you explore, accept, and love who you really are.

7) Journaling is Practicing Self-Care

After a long school day, studying, involving in extra-curricular activities, and spending time with your peers, you also need to spend some time taking care of yourself.

Complimenting yourself for submitting that huge assignment on time, reflecting on how that conversation with your crush went, and coming up with some better things to say if you were put in that situation at some time, in your journal is practicing self-care. 

You’re taking time to think about yourself, reflect on yourself, and take care of yourself.

Self-care isn’t selfish. Instead, it’s splendid.

Related Post: How to Be a Successful Teenager

6 Quick Tips To Start Journaling for Teenagers

1) Gather Your Journaling Tools

Grab a cute notebook that can captivate you to journal whenever you see it. 

Get your lovely journaling stuff like washi tapes, stickers, brush pens, highlighters, etc.

After going on a shopping spree of buying adorable journaling supplies, hopefully, you’ll begin your journaling journey as you’ve spent money on those things. 

If not, your guilt will eat you alive!

2) Start Small and Simple

Starting small and simple is the biggest tips to get started journaling for teenagers!

Take baby steps and lower your expectations. 

Don’t aim and try to write 3 pages on your first day of journaling. You’ll burn out and hate its guts. 

Journal for 5 minutes a day and slowly, momentum and flow will emerge.

3) Have Fun Journaling

Make the journaling process enjoyable.Try out. Mess about.

Attach your journaling habit with something you already enjoy doing like sipping and drinking coffee or listening to music while journaling

4) Don’t Feel Like You Need to Write Everything

My biggest stumbling block when I started journaling back in the day was I tried to write a minute-by-minute narration of all of my daily actions and feelings. 

No wonder, it felt like a chore. It bored me to death.

You don’t need to commit to the same mistake, guys. 

You can leave out some aspects of your life you’re uncomfortable writing about. Just journal about the things you want to bury in your heart, and never forget fast.

5) Create a Schedule

If you’re an early bird, journal in the morning. If you’re a night owl, unwind and journal at nighttime. 

Find your flexible, suitable time in the day to journal and commit to having fun journaling during that period.

6) Share Your Journaling Experience

You don’t need to share your personal journal entries. They can remain as your treasure troves. But if you do want to share, go for it. 

What I encourage you to share is your personal experiences with journaling to create accountability.

Share your incentives or motives to dive into the ocean of journaling and keep swimming, with your loved ones or with other modern teens in the comment sections.

Bonus: If you’re just starting out, consider grabbing this inspiring and practical book.

Methods To Journaling for Teenagers + Great Resources

journaling for teenagers

There is no one-size-fits approach to journaling as a teenager. Many methods of journaling exist and you can even mix up and create your exclusive style of journaling. 

Having said that, here are 6 methods of journaling for you to experiment with, and pick and choose your favorite.

1) Bullet Journaling

Let your creative juices flow!  Here are some suggestions to include:

  • To-Do-List
  • Exam Calendar
  • Class Schedule
  • Affirmations
  • Mood Tracker
  • Habit Tracker
  • Sleep Log
  • Food Diary
  • Workout Routine
  • Wish List
  • Budget
  • Reading List
  • Favorite Quotes

Resources

  • Books – If you want to learn more about bullet journaling, check out these books:

“The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future” by Ryder Carroll

“Study with Me: Effective Bullet Journaling Techniques, Habits and Hacks To Be Successful, Productive, and Organized” by 2 impressive teenagers, Jasmine Shao and Alyssa Jagon.

  • Youtube ChannelsAmandaRachLee, this bujo queen, is super-duper cool and inspiring.
  • WebsitesLittle Coffee Fox has everything you need to start journaling from the bujo guide to supplies to a free resource library.

Best Supplies to Start Bullet Journaling for Teenagers

2) Dream Journaling

Dream journaling is the practice of documenting portions of your dreams as soon as you wake up when they’re still fresh in your mind. 

Keeping a dream diary is fantastic since all sorts of dreams can be influential instruments for unlocking the creativity that goes unnoticed during your waking life.

Dreams are interesting and sometimes, foreshadowing. 

So, as you journal about your daily dreams, you’ll spot patterns in them. And you can use patterns and dream symbols to analyze specific dreams using a dream dictionary.

Plus, a dream diary can aid you to love your sleep.

Resources

3) Prompting Journaling

This type of journaling is a great way to exercise your creativity and imagination muscles.

You choose or come up with a prompt like “What makes your heart sing loudest? What makes your heart beat strongest?”. Then, you can elaborate on it. You can be as artistic or silly as you want in your answers.

You might find these 50 Unique Journal Prompts For Teens useful to get started!

4) Success Journal

This is where you can stockpile your products of humongous successes and teeny-tiny wins.

It’s a great way to start journaling for teenagers because it helps motivate and inspire to keep pushing through and working hard.

When you’re depressed or discouraged, come back to your success journal and extract motivation from it.

5) 5 Year Journal

As the name suggests, it is a 5 year journal where you summarize your entire day in only a couple of sentences across a period of 5 years.

Recommended – One Line A Day: A Five Year Memory Book

6) T.L.C Journal

TLC is an acronym that stands for…

  • Thank
  • Learn
  • Connect

Thank – What’re you thankful for today? What brightens your day? Think deeply and put that event down on paper precisely.

Learn – What did you learn today? Did you solve that freaking hard sum? Did you absorb some life-changing magic from a blog post or a book?

Connect – With whom did you connect? Did you have an engrossing and fun conversation with your best friend? Did you pluck up the courage to speak to your stern professor? Or how did you connect the information and wisdom you learn with the real world?

The T.L.C method kills three birds with one stone.

7) Morning Pages

The idea of morning pages stems from the outstanding book called “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron.

It was designed to help artists with artistic creative recovery which is a fancy way of saying to harness their creative talents and skills. 

In fact, it’s not only for people associated with artsy things. The power of the morning pages doesn’t stop at creative pursuits.

Morning pages bring forth mental clarity, focus, and direction to any teens’ lives.

The lifeline of morning pages is to fill three pages with whatever pops up in your mind. 

You can slip all about your crush, go on and on about your friendship breakups, and rant about how babysitting your little bratty sister is driving you nuts. 

It’s challenging at first but as you keep writing 3 full pages, you’ll find ease, comfort, joy in doing so.

Related Post: Easy Full Body Workout for Teenagers at Home

An Easy-Peasy Process to Journaling for Teenagers

Let me share with you my procedure of journaling. 

When the new year rolls around, I make 365 rolls of journaling prompts and put them in a big jar. The spontaneous and exhilarating thing is that each day I reach into the jar, draw on at random, and elaborate on it.

Sometimes, when I get overwhelmed and frustrated, I also do a brain-dump which means writing down everything and anything I’m going through. It’s my tailored technique of healing and relaxation.

I picked up journaling after obsessively reading the whole series of Dork Diaries (girls will fall in love with this) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (boys will be into this). 

Both are gripping, hilarious, coming-of-age blockbusters about a teenager’s daily life written in a journal or a diary format with a bunch of doodles, comic strips, and drawings. 

They’ve been a birthplace of my love and passion for journaling. 

Old School vs Brand New Journaling

You might be wondering if you should journal in paper or digital form. 

My suggestion is that you should first run a trial of journaling in both fashions so that you know which one you’re fond of.

At the end of the day, it’s really up to you and what feels most comfortable. Definitely give both a try regardless!

25 Quotes To Motivate and Inspire You to Start Journaling

Motivational quotes about journaling

If you’ve read till this point, hopefully, you could entirely sense a surge of motivation and inspiration blazing in your heart to journal. Let me take those feelings to a whole new floor.

I’ve compiled a list of 25 inspiring and motivational quotes about journaling for teenagers that’ve been shared with the world by remarkable individuals…

I’ve been keeping a diary for 33 years and write in it every morning. Most of it’s just whining, but every so often there’ll be something I can use later: a joke, a description, a quote. It’s an invaluable aid when it comes to winning arguments. That’s not what you said on February 3, 1996, I’ll say to someone. – David Sedaris

That’s what journaling is about. It’s a break from the world. A framework for the day ahead. A coping mechanism for troubles of the hours just past. A revving up of your creative juices, for relaxing and clearing. – Ryan Holiday

I don’t journal to ‘be productive’. I don’t do it to find great ideas or to put down prose I can later publish. The pages aren’t intended for anyone but me. It’s the most cost-effective therapy I’ve ever found. – Tim Ferris

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou

Journal writing, when it becomes a ritual for transformation, is not only life-changing but life-expanding. – Jen Williamson

Documenting little details of your everyday life becomes a celebration of who you are. – Carolyn V. Hamilton

If you want to practise or improve your conversational skills, the best thing to do is start a journal. – Jeremiah Say

Sitting for even five minutes with a journal offers a rare cease-fire in the battle of daily life. – Alexandra Johnson

The true purpose of illustrated journaling is to celebrate your life. No matter how small or mundane or redundant, each drawing and little essay you write to commemorate an event or object or a place makes it all the more special. – Danny Gregory

For years I’ve been advocating the power and pleasure of being grateful. I kept a gratitude journal for a full decade without fail – and urged you all to do the same. – Oprah Winfrey

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every thought that flutters up into your brain. – Jack London

Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell. – Louis May Alcott

Writing in a journal reminds you of your goals and of your learning in life. It offers a place where you can hold a deliberate, thoughtful conversation with yourself. – Robin Sharma

A diary is useful during conscious, intentional and painful spiritual evolutions. – Andres Gide

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. – Ferris Buelle

Writing in a journal each day allows you to direct your focus to what you accomplished, what you’re grateful for and what you’re committed to doing better tomorrow. Thus, you more deeply enjoy your journey each day. – Hal Elro

Almost every morning I write in my journal. I’ve been keeping it for a long time – I’ve filled more than 50 books. I write about what’s going on in my personal and spiritual life or what’s going on at work. It helps me keep things in perspective, especially when things get crazy or I get stressed or we have obstacles. – Blake Mycoskie

I started journaling and I was learning so much along the way. – Jay Leno

Journaling is a great way to pay attention to ‘how it all came to be’. In looking back, you gain insight into your challenges, lessons, and perseverance. – Meissa Steginus

Don’t bend. Don’t water it down, don’t try to make it logical, don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. – Franz Kafka

I write in a journal daily. This extraordinary ritual has revolutionized my mindset, transformed my heartset, and generally influenced my life exponentially. – Robin

A journal is your completely unaltered voice. – Lucy Dacu

The starting point of who you are, your gifts, your talents, your dreams, is being comfortable with yourself. Spend time alone. Write in a journal. – Robin Sharma

Journal writing gives us insights into who we are, who we were, and who we can become. – Sandra Marinell

Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time. – Mina Murray, Dracula

These quotes are fuel to your amazing journaling journey. So, burn baby, burn. And start journaling right now, baby, journal! 

Let loose both of your bizarre and brilliant anything in your journal.

Conclusion

Hopefully this ultimate guide on journaling for teenagers has taught you something about how to get started with the right resources!

So, did I complete my mission to convince you to start journaling? Do you feel inspired to start one now? What type of style are you going to tap into?

Or maybe, you’ve been journaling since you could write! How is journaling helping you in your teenage years? I’m dying to know.

A huge thanks to Mandy for this incredible article! She’s the absolute master at everything journaling!

Please, share your journaling story and perspectives on journaling in the comments below! Thanks for reading!

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5 comments
  1. I absolutely loved every word of this article. It felt like a good friend was talking to me. I’m totally guilty of watching kpop too much and am working on watching it healthily. Journalling helped me too, to control my emotions. I resonated with you 100% when you said how journaling helped you realize and spend more quality time with your granny because the same happened to me. Yes, Amanda Rach Lee is the queen.
    Hey at this rate I’ll end up rewriting your whole article.
    So, I’ll just wrap up by saying, Thank you very much, Mandy, for writing this amazing article. I will definitely try the amazing journal ideas you suggested. And Daniel, I must say Thankyou to you too for putting such helpful and amazing articles out. Thank you and wish both of you the best.

  2. Hey Mudita,

    I’m so happy you enjoyed Mandy’s article!

    Thank you so much for sharing your love and expressing your thoughts about journaling. It really is something that everyone should start doing!

    Take care!

  3. Hi Mudita,

    Sorry for my late reply.

    Your comment warms the cockles of my heart.❤️ Thanks a ton for showering me with a deluge of delight.

    I can sense your unbridled love for journaling in your words. Wish you all the best on your joyful journaling journey ahead!

    Love,
    Mandy

  4. Hi Abigail,

    Thanks for the support! This article was originally published at the end of 2021, but has been updated regularly with consistent information up until now 🙂

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