Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl opens with Anne's birthday, for which she received the diary which she's writing her story in. Anne says of Kitty, the name she gives to her diary, that she was "one of [her] nicer presents." Anne talks about her excitement for her birthday, rising early and having to wait for her parents to get up. She talks about her other presents and the special attention she gets at school from her friends and getting to pick the class game.

In this initial entry, Anne is the epitome of a typical 14-year-old girl, excited for her birthday, eager to share her thoughts and feelings on paper that seems to understand her and won't judge her. She is incredibly relatable in these first entries, which makes her experience in hiding and eventual ending of her story all the more surprising and horrible.