Editing Go Ask Alice (section)

===Controversies involving other works by Sparks===
Sparks was involved in a similar controversy regarding the veracity of her second diary project, the 1979 book ''[[Jay's Journal]]''.<ref name="Esq"/> It was allegedly the real diary, edited by Sparks, of a teenage boy who died by [[suicide]] after becoming involved with the [[occult]].<ref name=goldberg /> The publisher's initial marketing of the book raised questions about whether Sparks had edited a real teenager's diary or written a fictional diary, and recalled the same controversy with respect to ''Go Ask Alice''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Schwartz |first=Sheila |date=1980-09-21 |title='Jay's Journal' Deplorable  |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/114376157/ |page=17B |newspaper=Poughkeepsie Journal |location=[[Poughkeepsie, New York]] |access-date=2017-01-05 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> Later, the family of real-life teenage suicide Alden Barrett contended that ''Jay's Journal'' used 21 entries from Barrett's real diary that the family had given to Sparks, but that the other 191 entries in the published book had been fictionalized or fabricated by Sparks, and that Barrett had not been involved with the occult or "devil worship".<ref name=dieterle>{{cite news|last=Dieterle |first=Ben |date=2004-06-03 |title=Teen Death Diary |url=http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/feat_2004-06-03.cfm |url-status=dead |newspaper=Salt Lake City Weekly |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629192655/http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2004/feat_2004-06-03.cfm |archive-date=2006-06-29 |access-date=2016-12-22 }}</ref>

Sparks went on to produce numerous other books presented as diaries of anonymous troubled teens (including ''Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager'' and ''It Happened to Nancy: By an Anonymous Teenager'') or edited transcripts of therapy sessions with teens (including ''[[Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets]]''). Some commentators have noted that these books use writing styles similar to ''Go Ask Alice''<ref name=adams /> and contain similar themes, such as tragic consequences for spending time with bad companions, a protagonist who initially gets into trouble by accident or through someone else's actions, and portrayal of premarital sex and homosexuality as always wrong.<ref name=goldberg /> Although Sparks was typically listed on these books as editor or preparer, the number of similar books that Sparks published, making her "arguably the most prolific Anonymous author in publishing",<ref name=bisbort /> fueled suspicions that she wrote ''Go Ask Alice''.<ref name=adams /><ref name=bisbort />