Judy Blume changed the way coming-of-age stories were told.
Lena Dunham, Molly Ringwald, Samantha Bee and more celebrate the best-selling young adult author in the new documentary “Judy Blume Forever,” which premiered Saturday at Sundance Film Festival and starts streaming April 21 on Amazon Prime. Blume, 84, whose novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” is coming to theaters April 28, reflects on decades of writing stories that she felt children wanted to read – and had a right to know about.
“She allowed young women to be as complicated and messy and dark and light and funny as we are,” Dunham says in the documentary.
Here’s what we learned from “Judy Blume Forever.”
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Why Judy Blume felt a calling to write about taboo topics
Blume’s young adult novels, most of which were published between the ’70s and ’90s, dealt with topics that adults largely did not discuss with children – girls especially. She wrote about puberty, masturbation, curse words and grappling with existential thoughts.
It stemmed from Blume’s own experiences as a child, during which she recalled feeling anxious about the world around her and resented adults keeping secrets from her.
“Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” published in 1970, thrust Blume into the spotlight. She knew it would be “terribly controversial” among adults, but that tween girls would love it.
“I remember being that age,” Blume says in the documentary. “I was fascinated by the idea of changing bodies and breast development, for me getting my period. I was obsessed by it. I wanted to write the truth, the reality of being that age.”
Subsequent novels also sparked myriad fan letters from young readers, thankful to have found a grown-up willing to be honest with them. One reader, who appears in the documentary as an adult, frequently wrote to Blume about trying to cope with her brother’s suicide after he had sexually assaulted her for years. Blume’s responses saved her life, she says.
Still, parents pushed back against Blume’s work.
“I heard from a lot of people saying, ‘I won’t let my child read this book,’ ” Blume says of her 1993 novel, “Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson,” which features a scene in which a teenage boy drops an f-bomb.
“Your child is probably out there on the playground yelling (the f-word) all over the place,” she says. “Because it’s just a word. If you look it up in the dictionary, which I did, it says ‘a meaningless word intensifier.’ But it’s real. And Charles meant it. And so there it is.”
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Blume’s whole career has centered around the idea that children have a right to get answers to their questions. So when the Reagan administration brought book banning to the forefront of national conversation, she became a staunch defender of both the content of her own books and others facing book bans.
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“I was accused of all kinds of evil-doing. And once, because I am a supporter of Planned Parenthood, I got something like 700 death threats in a day. We took that very seriously,” says Blume, recalling that she worried if “some angry parent” was “going to come in and shoot” her.
“It never stopped me … but I learned that you can’t debate the zealots,” Blume adds. “There wasn’t any point to it really, except making myself sick.”
The issue is timely again – legislators across the country have pulled books about race, sexuality and gender identity from classrooms and libraries. Blume calls the resurgence of book banning “shocking.”
It’s “as if time stood still and we’re back in the ’80s,” she says.
Lena Dunham, Molly Ringwald on how Judy Blume changed the culture
“Everything that I learned about sex, or thinking about sex, or crushes, I learned from Judy Blume,” says Ringwald, a coming-of-age icon in her own right.
She’s joined by late-night host Samantha Bee, “PEN15” creator and star Anna Konkle, young adult author Jacqueline Woodson and “Girls” creator and star Dunham in highlighting the shame that media and pop culture has historically associated with young women’s bodies – and how Blume’s work laid the foundation for their careers.
“Judy’s books speak about the unspeakable. It’s the reason that her books were so complicated for people,” says Dunham.
Blume now resides with her husband in Key West, Florida, where she runs a bookstore and frequently meets readers of all ages who have been impacted by her storytelling.
“I say it a lot – to remind myself: You are old,” Blume says. “Who knows how much longer you have? But I don’t feel old. I still sometimes get asked in letters, are you 12 years old? Are you a kid? Part of me is.”
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