The Judy Blume-aissance is (finally) upon us
Amil Niazi and Jen Sookfong Lee tell guest host Vivek Shraya why Judy Blume’s work matters now more than ever
With a new documentary out about her life's work and the release of the highly-anticipated film adaptation of her most beloved novel, Judy Blume is finally having her moment.
Few authors have successfully captured young minds for generations quite like Blume. Ever since she published Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret 53 years ago, she has sold over 90 million copies — and changed millions of young readers' lives.
Culture writers Amil Niazi and Jen Sookfong Lee tell guest host Vivek Shraya how Judy Blume's work shaped them as young girls, and why they believe she matters now more than ever.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.
Vivek: For anyone who does not know the world of Judy Blume, let's take you there right now. Amil, what do you remember feeling when you first read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret? How did you relate to the protagonist?
Amil: I discovered Judy Blume when I was around 11 or 12. I was anxiously awaiting my period. I didn't want it. I didn't feel comfortable in my body. I didn't feel ready for these changes — and the last thing I wanted to do was talk to my mother about it. And so in reading Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, in finding such comfort and community in this character and the world that Judy Blume managed to create, I really found myself. It was almost like reading someone's diary — someone that you really like and wanted to be friends with. It just really, really spoke to me and it really helped me get through that very awkward time because I felt like I couldn't talk about it with anybody else.
Vivek: I think that's the gift of a great writer, right? Somebody who gives voice to the things that we feel inside but have not been able to say. Jen, how did Margaret come to life for you?
Jen: Well, the thing about me that nobody knows is that I grew up in the church, in a really religious family. I've never talked about it.
Vivek: Oh, it's all coming out.
Jen: So when I was actually that age, 10 or 11, my father was really sick; he was dying of cancer. I did a lot of talking to God myself, asking him to make my dad healthy again. When my dad ended up dying when I was 12, I started questioning the role of religion in my life in a very similar fashion to Margaret. I think to this day, that connection of puberty and religion all in the same book — I doubt it's been done again, and no one has done it certainly as well as Judy Blume did. Basically I was Margaret, is what I'm saying.
Vivek: That's really moving, especially thinking about those connections when you're young. So what do you feel like she did differently than other authors, especially at that time?
Jen: There's this really beautiful frankness and matter-of-factness in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. I think that it's that very real tension of "I want to get my period," "I'm afraid of getting my period," of being obsessed with romance — being so obsessed with your friends, actually, which is very key to why Are You There God? is so good. Every single detail about what these girls were like and what they wanted, was so accurate in a way that I think no one has really done better. I keep saying that, but Judy Blume is the best.
Vivek: Amil, what do you think she understood about kids that other authors maybe didn't?
Amil: Judy herself has said that when she was a kid, she always felt like adults were keeping secrets from her, and when she approached her novels, she wanted to make sure that she was telling them the truth as they see it and know it. That's something that most — especially YA — authors did not do in her time and still struggle to do: to speak the truth to children…. She is willing to tell them the truth unvarnished, unfiltered and not shield them from something that they are well aware of already…. She really cares, and that's very evident.
Vivek: I think being able to speak to children as fully-formed human beings is something that we just don't do enough of. Jen, speaking to you as a writer now, what difference has Judy Blume made to you? What did she teach you about being a writer or about writing?
Jen: I think genuinely the core thing that she taught me was that you should always write exactly the thing that scares you the most. She was writing about the sexuality of young people, and that was always going to be something that was riddled with issues for her. I think she knew that, but she did it anyway. I'm someone who writes about Asian female rage, and respectability and race and white supremacy, and I have never once thought in my career that I shouldn't write about these things. I think that this is the crux of what I've learned from Judy Blume: we should write those difficult and challenging things, because the alternative — which is silence — is the worst possible outcome.
WATCH | Official trailer for Judy Blume Forever:
Vivek: Agreed. Tackling taboo topics the way she did earned her the respect of millions of readers — but it also made her a target. Her books were constantly being banned. Just last month, a school board in Florida banned one of her books because it deals with teenage sexuality. Why does Judy Blume still represent such a threat, and what does that tell us about us in this particular moment, Amil?
Amil: It's really, really upsetting and scary that we are still stuck in this cycle of wanting to shield young people from their truth and from knowing themselves. It's kind of a cliché but knowledge is power, and Judy Blume empowers these young kids to understand themselves, to be curious about themselves, to be curious about the world.
There are a lot of people who don't want kids to feel empowered to do that and to go out there in search of that, because we know what it means when you start to ask questions — it changes you, and it changes how you interact with the world. Judy Blume sees that as wonderful, and it is. A lot of people see it as terrifying because it changes how they can control those young people. And so, it continues to be banned but kids will continue to find it because of how honest and life-changing these books can be for them.
Vivek: I always feel like if you're terrifying adults but inspiring children with the same thing, you're probably doing something right.
Amil: You're doing the right thing, yes.
Vivek: I want to ask both of you, I read something from Marsha Lederman's profile of Judy Blume in The Globe and Mail a few days ago. She describes a friend asking a librarian at the Vancouver Public Library, "Who's the new Judy Blume?" And without missing a beat, the librarian responded, "It's still Judy Blume." Jen, why do you think she still has such staying power?
Jen: To this day people are really uncomfortable with the idea of young people, and girls especially, being honest about sex and their emotions. Judy Blume was really the first to give voice and space to those feelings, which are legitimate and valid. She's still the best because she writes these characters with sensitivity and generosity. It's never a spectacle; there's no shame, no judgment. The girls and the boys and all the other kids are just who they are. It's this matter-of-factness that makes her one of the greatest authors of all time — and not just for children, but also in general.
WATCH | Official trailer for Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret:
Vivek: It sounds like you already have your tickets for tomorrow. Are you going to go see the movie?
Jen: Yeah, obviously.
Vivek: Did you like the trailer?
Jen: Oh, I love the trailer. Everything's perfect — the styling from the girls, the cars, and also is it not just genius that Kathy Bates plays her grandmother? Like, why is that so good?
Vivek: More Kathy Bates, please. And Amil, I'm also wondering what you think is Judy Blume's staying power?
Amil: Well, I would just add to everything Jen said is the vulnerability with which she approaches these characters and her writing. Because as much as the world has changed for 11, 12, 13-year-olds since Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret first came out, the experience of awkwardness, of discomfort, of change is exactly the same when you're that age. And Judy Blume remains open to speaking to that vulnerability and to how strange you feel in your body when you're that age. That has not changed, and so I think that's why it continues to resonate with people that age.
Vivek: Do you have your tickets for tomorrow?
Amil: Oh, I'm definitely seeing that movie. I'm so excited that Kelly Fremon Craig, who's the director, is the one to do it. We've waited 50 years for this, so I think there's going to be a lot of people in theaters tomorrow for sure.
You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Panel produced by Jess Low.
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