What are Personal Essays?

Before we look into a personal essay, it’s important to know a bit about the essay as a literary form.

Essays are a prose form - usually non-fiction - written for public consumption. They can be published in journals, newspapers, magazines, etc. They were popularized in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was partially because of the rise of the middle class.

So, personal essays are usually written about people who usually have a very public life. They offer insights into the lives of people that readers are interested in. For example, a celebrity, singer, or actor. When such people write about themselves, about intimate moments that the press don’t yet know about, it’s called a personal essay.

This is important because the idea of the self these days has become more personal and debatable. People could ponder for a long time about the kind of person they are, versus the kind of person they are portrayed as. There is a lot of focus on the self and the individual.

A personal essay should be true, even though memories aren’t always true. Let me explain that. A personal essay is a work of non-fiction - which means fact. However, memories can be biased. So that means that a writer has to put in some preliminary work and research before writing their personal essay. Even though the essay is about them and a time in their life, they still have a responsibility to check their facts. A personal essay can be deep or shallow. It can be heavy or light. It depends on what the author wants to share and the point they are trying to make.

That being said, a personal essay can be about anything you want it to be. It doesn’t have to be a very serious piece of writing. All it has to be is something about you that you find interesting. Be confident and put yourself out there. One day, when you’re a celebrity, someone will read your work and be inspired by it.