The Freedom Writers Diary is the amazing true story of strength, courage, and achievement in the face of adversity.  In the fall of 1994, in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, an idealistic twenty-four-year-old teacher named Erin Gruwell faced her first group of students, dubbed by the administration as "unteachable, at-risk" teenagers.  This group was unlike any she had ever interacted with.

The kids took bets on how long their new teacher would last in their classroom.  Then a pivotal event changed their lives forever: when a racial caricature of one of the African American students circulated the classroom, Erin angrily intercepted the drawing and compared it to a Nazi exaggeration of Jews during the Holocaust.  To her amazement, the students responded with puzzled looks.  Erin was appalled to discover that not one child in her class knew of the Holocaust and its unspeakable horrors.  When asked how many had been shot at, however, all raised their hands, and a battle-scar show-and-tell began that shocked Erin even more.

Erin Gruwell had touched a nerve, and she ran with it.  Knowing that her students were all too familiar with violence, she introduced them to Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo.  Reluctant at first to read the strange texts, the students of Room 203 soon paralleled their lives to those of Anne and Zlata- teenagers also surrounded by violence- and could not believe their intense connections to the stories.  Each student began to keep his or her own anonymous diary, recording tormenting stories of drug use, struggles with physical and mental abuse, reaction to Erin and her unconventional teaching methods.  The results were the foundation of a life-changing, spiritually enriching journey that began with a symbolic "toast for change," and has not stopped since.

From the moment they named themselves the "Freedom Writers," the students of Room 203 changed from a group of apathetic delinquents to a closely knit, motivated family with Erin Gruwell as their guide.  The Freedom Writers worked extremely hard to bring their first influences off the page and into their lives, with funds raised from a "Read-a-thon for Tolerance" set up by Erin, as well as endless moonlighting jobs that Erin worked, they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California.  Soon after, Zlata Filipovic responded to the Freedom Writers' many letters inviting her to Long Beach, and she spent five days with them, allowing the Freedom Writers to compare notes with her.  This reinforced to the Freedom Writers that voices are heard, change is possible, and a difference can be made in people through the power of words.

The Freedom Writers have since continued to spread their story and message throughout the world.  In 1997 they held an "Echoes of the Soul" fund-raising concert to help pay for a trip to Washington, D.C., where they toured the Holocaust Museum and presented their diary to Secretary of Education Richard Riley.  This trip also allowed them to emulate their heroes, the Freedom Riders, by holding a peace march and prayer vigil for victims of intolerance at the Washington Monument.  In 1998 they won the Spirit of Anne Frank Award the Freedom Writers traveled to New York to accept the award.  Most recently, in the summer of 1999, one of their most far-reaching goals was achieved.  The Freedom Writers and Erin visited Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam; the concentration camps Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Chelmno in Poland; and visited Zlata in Sarajevo, Bosnia.  Most important all 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from High School and are attending college.

About Erin Gruwell

Nothing could have prepared Erin Gruwell for her first day of teaching at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif. A recent college graduate, Erin landed her first job in Room 203, only to discover many of her students had been written off by the education system and deemed “unteachable.” As teenagers living in a racially divided urban community, they were already hardened by first-hand exposure to gang violence, juvenile detention, and drugs.

Enter Erin Gruwell. By fostering an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, she transformed her students’ lives. She encouraged them to rethink rigid beliefs about themselves and others, to reconsider daily decisions, and to rechart their futures. With Erin’s steadfast support, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. They even dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders” and published a book.

Inspired by Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic (who lived through war-torn Sarajevo), Erin and her students captured their collective journey in The Freedom Writers Diary How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. Through poignant student entries and Erin’s narrative text, the book chronicles their “eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding.”

While Erin has been credited with giving her students a “second chance,” it was perhaps she who changed the most during her tenure at Wilson High School. She decided to channel her classroom experiences toward a broader cause, and today her impact as a “teacher” extends well beyond Room 203.

Currently, Erin serves as president of the Freedom Writers Foundation. She raises awareness by traveling nationwide to speak inside large corporations, government institutions, and community associations. But Erin’s capacity to convert apathy to action matters most at schools and juvenile halls, where any observer can watch the expressions of troubled teens shift from guarded cynicism to unabashed hopefulness.

Erin and her students have appeared on numerous television shows, including Oprah, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Prime Time Live with Connie Chung, Barbara Walters’ The View, Good Morning America, and CSPAN’s Book TV. Her class has been featured on National Public Radio and in national newspapers and People magazine. Paramount Pictures released "Freedom Writers" in January 2007, a film based on this remarkable story featuring Hilary Swank as Erin.

Erin is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials from California State University, Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.