Memories about our childhoods and adolescence may not always be accurate, but they do influence how we position ourselves as adults. In this paper, I assert that written and visual diaries can be used as a way to access the most accurate version of one’s younger years, and thus, they can help one explore their self-narrative and enhance their self-understanding.

In this auto-hermeneutic inquiry, I studied the therapeutic potential of exploring my own early diaries and attempted to answer how reviewing one’s early thinking and emotions might influence a person’s current self-identity. In this research, I identified three aspects that enriched my understanding of my adolescence, and hence, my current self. First, the recurring narratives found in my adolescent diaries enhanced my understanding of the way I feel about particular things today. Second, I realized that the narrative I built around my teen self was not actually an accurate representation of my younger self. Third, using my diaries allowed me to identify important correlations between my past experiences and my current self.

I conclude that adolescent diaries are one useful way to explore autobiographic memory and self-identity. Realizations drawn from earlier diaries can then be explored further through art therapy.

关于我们童年和青春期的记忆可能并不总是准确的，但它们确实会影响我们如何将自己定位为成年人。在这篇论文中，我断言书面和视觉日记可以用作获取最准确版本的年轻时代的一种方式，因此，它们可以帮助人们探索他们的自我叙述并增强他们的自我理解。

在这个自我解释学调查中，我研究了探索自己早期日记的治疗潜力，并试图回答回顾一个人早期的想法和情绪可能会如何影响一个人当前的自我认同。在这项研究中，我确定了三个方面，丰富了我对青春期的理解，从而丰富了我现在的自我。首先，在我青春期日记中反复出现的叙述增强了我对今天对特定事物的感受的理解。其次，我意识到我围绕青少年自我建立的叙述实际上并不能准确代表我年轻的自我。第三，使用我的日记让我能够确定我过去的经历和我现在的自我之间的重要关联。

我的结论是，青少年日记是探索自传记忆和自我认同的一种有用方式。然后可以通过艺术疗法进一步探索从早期日记中得出的认识。