The other day I climbed the ladder to my attic and found myself creeping nervously towards a dusty box, just the sight of which made me shudder.

Inside was a battered A3 book covered in pictures of cute babies, adorable animals and cuttings from Smash Hits of boys I once fancied - my secret diary aged 14 to 15.

Throughout my adult life I have flicked through the tormented year of 1993 on a few occasions but never got very far. Rereading the secret tortured thoughts and crushes of my 14-year-old self was on a par with sticking pins in my eyeballs.

But this week I bravely battled through every single tragic page of teenage angst and came out the other side with the reinforced belief that my teenage years were definitely not the best of my life.

So why this act of masochism?

I was inspired to revisit my most self-obsessed, adolescent angst by author Sarah Brown who, stirred by her own excruciating diaries, has compiled Cringe, a book jam-packed with old journal entries, letters, notes, songs and poems from brave souls prepared to share.

As the author herself reveals: “Oh the injustices I suffered, being a middle-class white girl whose parents were still married!”

So in a bid to finally lay the self-centered, bratty, teenage Charlotte to rest, here are some of my own worst toe-curling entries…

January 1, 1993: If I was to die before this diary was finished I give only Katie McDowell and Sophie Jacobs permission to read it and extract any needed information, no one else should go further.

January 2: Read no further!! This diary means everything to me and by reading it you would be hurting me so please DON’T

January 3: RESPECT MY PRIVACY PLEASE

January 4: MUM (OR DAD) IF YOU’RE READING THIS YOU’RE A NOSEY, UNTRUSTWORTHY SOD AND I DON’T LOVE YOU ANY MORE

January 6: DEPRESSION SESSION

January 17: I love Robert *A 20-year-old DJ from my local radio station I am obsessed with and keep phoning up to impress with my sparkling 14-year-old wit

February 10: Mark Owen is LUSH

February 22: Lyrics to Alone by Heart written out after afternoon spent in bedroom constantly rewinding cassette

March 1: I hate my life! It’s a pile of crap. I don’t think I exist nobody knows I’m here, this is just a diary in my non-existent world, I’m invisible no one can hear me oh my god I’m ill!

March 24: I  bought some platforms lush

April 9: I’m in love with someone and he doesn’t know how much plus he tells me about a girl he’s been seeing

April 20: I am madly in love with Robert. I would go out with John and Simon if they were straight. Jeff has serious sex appeal but is too old. Nick has a sexy voice. Ant and Rick have lush personalities but no sex appeal.

May 12^: Bon Jovi is married! That is a real tragedy for me. La la la la la la la no particular reason for writing that

June 10: I Want To Know What Love Is by Foreigner describes my feelings exactly

June 18: My mother really pisses me off she’s so nosey and suspicious. I’ve just had a lecture from my father about being deceitful

June 23: End of year exams: Chemistry was a disaster and well biology that pissed me off. Bloody stupid questions, totally irrelevant to what we have done since September in fact I nearly threw an epi in the middle of the exam because it put me in such a mood.

June 30: Mum took me shopping I got a skirt. I also got a bikini top but it didn’t fit. God just didn’t bless me in that area. THANKS *Anyone who knows me now will appreciate the irony of this entry

July 1: I got an E in my Geography exam and I revised really hard. LIFE’S A BITCH

July 9: Why is Jim Kerr married to Patsy Kensit when he could be married to me?

July 12: This is the very worst day of my life. I want to die. I can’t take it any more I don’t want to go on living. Robert is moving in with his girlfriend.

July 13: My heart is bleeding

July 21: Life is shit and so are my friends

July 29: I am so in love with someone and I just wish in this lifetime I could get together with him

August 6: In France on annual sailing holiday with parents prompting a rather un-PC tirade against the French: Reasons to hate the French: Hairy armpits (female), Garlic breath (both sexes), They say bonjoir too often, they eat frogs

August 8: J’taime Robert. I need a tan to knock Robert off his feet when I get back from holiday. I really hate my parents they are so cruel to me.

August 9: I’m burnt. My parents are well stingy all they are giving me for a week is 26 francs as if that’s enough! Tight fisted gits

August 12: Little brother baiting: WANTED FRIENDS for a lonely 12 year old who no one likes! Contact Bensaddo Wart on…

August 15: Spent day at the beach admiring the tanned bods of a selection of reasonably horny men.

August 17: It is too hot. Spent 30 minutes sunbathing much to the interest of a fat ugly perv on a boat opposite. Would you believe after two weeks I still don’t have a noticeable tan? Life is such a bitch.

August 18: Met three girls on another English boat. They are in the same situation – wondering why three weeks on a boat is supposed to be a once in a lifetime experience?

September 28: We watched Romeo and Juliet in English. I was thinking about Robert all the way through it. I am a lovestruck teenager!

October 5: I really love Robert. I haven’t spoken to him for 23 days now and my heart is breaking.

October 7: I spoke to Robert this morning. What has happened to my life? Why has it gone downhill? Why am I miserable? Why do I feel like dying half the time? Why? Why? Why?

November 5: Robert’s girlfriend is pregnant. I am allowed to mourn on this day.

November 8: I rang Robert for about an hour and we had a really deep conversation. I think I’m over him.

November 12: Steve is lush…

Go on, cleanse yourself! Add your own cringeworthy diary ramblings below…