What a Creep Beatrice Sparks

What a Creep

Season 21, Episode 3

Beatrice Sparks

(Go Ask Alice & Jay’s Journal)

(Image from Esquire magazine)

In the 1970s & 1980s–entertainment designed to reach teenagers (and cure them of society’s ills) fell to YA writers, TV Movies, and “After School Specials.” One of the most compelling stories was the subject of 1971’s Go Ask Alice.

Based supposedly on the true story of a teen girl who delved into drugs and ultimately lost her life, it was designed to scare the audience, and the 1973 film cemented its importance as a tool for communicating between generations.

Beatrice Sparks billed herself as an adolescent psychology expert with an uncanny ability to write stories based on true-life journals and in-person interview sessions (thousands, she claimed.) But how true were her supposed nonfiction works?

Trigger warnings: Addiction and discussion of suicide

Beatrice Sparks “Go Ask Alice” & “Jay’s Journal” (Creepy “NON” Fiction Writer) – What a Creep
What a Creep Season 21, Episode 3 Beatrice Sparks (Go Ask Alice & Jay’s Journal) In the 1970s & 1980s–entertainment designed to reach teenagers (and cure them of society’s ills) fell to YA writers, TV Movies, and “https://clickamericana.com/media/television-shows/abc-afterschool-special-episodes.”

Sources for this episode:

Quillette:

Beatrice Sparks Wikipedia

Salt Lake City Weekly (1998)

Houston Public Media

Salt Lake City Tribune

Sydney Morning Herald

Rick Emerson: Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries”