Are you there Judy? It's me. I'm a young woman in her mid-20's. I live the single, post-college life in Washington, DC. I work for a nonprofit. I live in an apartment with a roommate, and hopefully am soon to get a cat. I have lots of fun with my friends, and I love what I do at work. Comparatively, I would say I have a pretty great life. Can't complain.
...But of course I don't have everything figured out yet. I guess I probably never will. When it comes to love, and sex, and body image, and self esteem, and friendships...sometimes I feel clueless and helpless, like everyone else does. This hasn't changed since adolescence.
But think back to when you were, say, 12. Who did you turn to when you were questioning something - say, about your body, or about a fight you had with a girlfriend. Who did you turn to? If you were a bookworm like me, you often turned to one Judy Blume: the queen of juvenile and "young adult" fiction (young adult is in quotes, because, at age 26, I am still sometimes referred to as a young adult - and I'd like to think I have changed since age 12).
Judy created characters that you could relate to: there was Margaret, who was new in town and just wanted to fill out her bra. There was the fat girl from Blubber, who just wanted to belong in a skinny girl's world. There was Deenie, who made me eternally terrified of the scoliosis screenings they did in elementary school (funny thing is, according to my doctor now, I actually do have a bit of scoliosis). There were the girls from Just As Long As We're Together, who went through every issue a friendship triangle can go through. And of course there were Katherine and Michael, who shared their "first time" with us in all of its fascinating detail.
Nothing was off limits in Judy books. She explored questions we didn't want to ask our parents. She talked about feelings that everyone was having during adolescence. And she made us all feel less...weird.
Thank God I'm not an adolescent any more - what a horrible, awkward time that was, right? Now that we are past that time in our lives, my question is: does Judy Blume still have relevance? Can we still learn lessons from her books? Now that we can look at that time in our lives a bit more objectively, is the world she describes in her books actually accurate?
This blog will be my attempt to answer such questions. Join me on this journey retrospectively into the hearts of our 12-year-old selves. I'll start with what is arguably Judy's most famous book: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Stay tuned.
