Just over a week ago we started a new project here in The Leo Zone. We're calling it Body Secrets and it's become very successful. Basically we're encouraging Leonardo visitors to write down anonymous revelations about themselves and we're posting them on the windows.

We started with a table near the windows and a stack of colorful stock cards, colored pencils, and a sign explaining the project:

"Body Secrets

Private confessions. Untold stories.
Embarrassing habits. Personal thoughts.

Post your anonymous body secret.

On a note card portray a secret, about your body, that you have never previously revealed. The only restriction on what you tell is that it must be completely truthful and has never been spoken before. Leave your anonymous secret in the box."

Everyday we get a whole spectrum of revelations. Some are silly. Some are tragic. Some are uplifting. Others are simply perplexing. We do filter the submissions to ensure they are legible, creative, and classy, (meaning not juvenile, and taken seriously). Yet every day it's a thrill to find moving revelations waiting for us in the box. This project is very low maintenance; just requiring colored pencils, colored index cards, and plastic tape. And to encourage thoughtful submissions we have even made clipboards available for visitors, so they can take their cards elsewhere in the lounge for privacy in writing.

The idea for this project was borrowed from the Post Secret project, started by Frank Warren a self-described "secret collector," who encourages people to mail him illustrated secrets on post cards. However, while borrowing from that concept, the Body Secrets project is being shaped by the BODY WORLDS 3 experience and the unique crowd visiting The Leonardo. Many of them are revelations about personal health, including health conditions or private concerns about people's own bodies. Some submissions also reflect the impact that seeing BODY WORLDS has made on some visitors and how they have began to view their own bodies.

From my observations the Body Secrets project is successful because it offers a simple and safe way for visitors to express themselves publicly. They can be provocative to read. And the best ones reflect the same concerns, thoughts, and anxieties shared by many.

And for each person who submits a secret on a card (myself included), the very act of writing it can be an emotional release. Even an experience of cleansing pent up emotion.

Here I have posted some examples of recent submissions: