Opal Irene Whiteley (December 11, 1897 – February 16, 1992) was an American nature writer and diarist whose childhood journal was first published in 1920 as "The Story of Opal" in serialized form in the "Atlantic Monthly", then later that same year as a book with the title "The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart". The diary gave Whiteley a celebrity status in her home state of Oregon, where she toured giving lectures on nature and the environment.