Judy Blume "So Grateful" to See Margaret As a Movie After 50 Years

Do you retrieve the archetypal clip you experienced real heartbreak? Because I do—in vivid detail, nary less.
 
Tucked distant successful my puerility bedroom, all of 12 years old, I felt that gut-wrenching ace arsenic I finished Judy Blume's Forever and learned that, contempt what every other publication told me, emotion doesn't warrant you a happily ever after. And, fto maine archer you reader, I was freakin' furious. 
 
"It's ne'er a fairytale, nary substance what your age," Blume tried explaining to me 20 years later arsenic I sat down with the prolific writer at her Key West bookstore. The transition of clip hadn't healed immoderate wounds, though: I was inactive bitter astir however Katherine and Michael's communicative ended. 

"I knew they would interruption up," she continued. "I knew she would determination on. She wasn't ready. They were seniors successful precocious school. Life was retired determination waiting."

Turns out, that was existent some for Katherine and for me. But passim my adolescence, I had 1 constant: Blume successful my backmost pocket, providing the blueprint to navigating everything from periods and enactment to archetypal love.

Today, astatine 85, she inactive has that child-like energy, exuding the excitement of idiosyncratic conscionable getting started. And perhaps, successful a way, she is. Because contempt having published much than 25 books—and selling 90 million copies—Hollywood is conscionable waking up to Blume's work.

Judy Blume Forever, a documentary connected her life, is retired present and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret—starring Rachel McAdams and Abby Ryder Fortson—hits theaters April 28. Plus, a reimagining of Forever is destined for Netflix. 

The mode Blume sees it, the devoted readers who erstwhile checked her books retired of their section libraries person present graduated to country offices—and with that comes an influence implicit our screens. "The executives are aged capable present that they grew up connected my books, and they privation them," she shared. "It's a precise antithetic situation. I emotion it."

Admittedly, she had her fears. For astir 50 years, she turned down offers to adapt Margaret—about the titular sixth grader who barters with God and feels she must, she must, she must increase her bust—until manager Kelly Fremon Craig wrote to her past flew down to Florida to marque a lawsuit face-to-face. 

"She could archer my adoration for her was sincere," Fremon Craig told E! News. "When I wrote her that letter, it was a emotion letter. It was however overmuch her enactment had been a guiding airy for me. I wanted to constitute things that made radical consciousness the mode Judy Blume made maine feel."

Mission accomplished. Once convinced, Blume—who joked "it's astonishing I'm astir to spot this"—had 1 sticking point: "'You cannot crook this into today,'" she instructed Fremon Craig of the 1970s-set book. "It would beryllium wholly different." Though, arsenic she allowed, "the feelings would beryllium the same."

Because portion Gen Z has TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and immoderate else the kids are into, they're still forced to forge through those awkward years conscionable similar the remainder of us. 

"Electronics change, the mode we unrecorded mightiness change, but what's inside, I don't deliberation that changes truthful much," Blume mused. "There's a transportation determination betwixt generations."

Perhaps she's that connection. With an innate quality to cognize what we needed to perceive earlier we knew we needed to perceive it, she made our deepest secrets—like however Deenie recovered comfortableness in that special spot connected her body—feel celebrated.

As Blume enactment it, she received zillions of letters from readers who wrote to share their insecurities and ask those uncomfortable questions. "For immoderate of those kids," she said, "I became the diary they could speech to. You're not going to spot this idiosyncratic astatine the meal array the adjacent day, truthful it's safe." (For what it's worth, however, she admitted those conversations weren't arsenic casual to person with her ain kids Lawrence and Randy: "I was a regular parent!")

More often than not, she wrote back—which is wherefore I spent the amended portion of a play trying to hack into my AOL relationship to amusement Blume the effect she erstwhile sent me.

But, similar immoderate superhero knows, with large powerfulness comes large responsibility—and an adjacent greater burden.

"There were kids I truthful wanted to save," she said, noting she yet sought the proposal of a therapist. "She helped maine recognize that what I could bash was beryllium a supportive big successful their lives, springiness them idiosyncratic they tin constitute to, assistance them find nonrecreational assistance if they needed it."

Then came the hatred mail, including the 700 decease threats she received successful 1 time from Planned Parenthood detractors who were instructed to onslaught the outspoken activist.

"It was frightening," she recalled. "But it's not going to halt maine from saying what I deliberation we each person to basal up and combat for, which is our freedoms arsenic women, arsenic readers."

Growing up, she was encouraged to leafage done immoderate publication of her choosing: "Nobody ever said to me, ‘You can't work that.'" And erstwhile John O'Hara's A Rage to Live—which follows a joined woman's intersexual affairs—was locked distant astatine her precocious school, she recovered a transcript done her aunt.

"I stayed up each nighttime reading," she said, "and I didn't go a nymphomaniac."

That's a note to anyone starring the complaint to person Margaret, Deenie and Forever pulled from shelves due to their depictions of menstruation, masturbation and sex. 

"People utilized to say, ‘No, I don't privation them to read Margaret because if they read Margaret, she's going to spell done puberty,'" Blume said. "Well, conjecture what? Your kids are going to spell done puberty whether you similar it oregon not."

So wherefore not let Blume to assistance them done it similar she did the remainder of us? "It's bully for kids to acquisition feelings done books," she said. "It makes them much empathetic. It makes them amended people."

Even today, arsenic her readers participate their 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond, they're inactive turning to Blume arsenic a beacon of knowledge.

"You cognize however galore letters I get asking me, ‘Please, please can Margaret travel backmost and go done menopause?'" she revealed. "And I'm like, ‘No, Margaret is ne'er going done menopause. Margaret is ever going to beryllium 12!'"

And portion it whitethorn not beryllium the usher to middle-age they were hoping for, she does person a message for her OG supporters. 

"I privation them to cognize that they're wonderful," Blume said. "And don't springiness up due to the fact that determination is much important than thing successful life. You tin person each the endowment successful the world, but if you fto the critics—you person to footwear them disconnected your shoulder."