This was first drafted on July 23, 2023 after viewing the documentary Judy Blume Forever on Amazon Prime.

Dear Judy Blume, 

The other night I sat down to watch Judy Blume Forever, the documentary about your life. At 43 years old, I sat in my chair, wiping tears from my eyes as the credits rolled. My husband wandered into the room and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”

“It’s this movie about Judy Blume,” said sniffling. “The author.” After a pause, I added the explanation, “She wrote a lot of books I read when I was younger.” This sufficed for the person who once read half of a Mitch Albom book. And that’s it. 

“And?” he challenged.

“I just can’t put into words how much those books meant to me.” Even that short sentence is hard to express through my tears. 

“Pathetic.” He shakes his head and leaves the room. 

I harden my resolve as I often do after a conversation with him, pick up my phone and add Wifey to my Amazon cart. 

Watching the movie, I was struck by all the letters that children wrote to you, and it warmed my heart to see how you often responded. I am happy that Yale archived these letters. I think they are a valuable part of American Gen X Girlhood history.  Hearing these beautiful letters, I thought to myself, I don’t know if it ever occurred to me to write to my favorite authors when I was young, but I do remember the author interviews that our 4th grade teacher would play for us. They were on cassette tapes and maybe came from Scholastic. We would sit in our desks quietly listening to these interviews, and as someone who wanted to be an author herself, I was fascinated listening to how they got inspired and what their process was. I also remember the day a real live author was coming to speak to our class, Gloria Whelan. I woke up sick that morning and missed it. When I got back to school, everyone said she was old and boring. I still felt like I had missed my chance to talk to a real author. 

But I write this letter now not expecting a reply or a conversation, but just in an attempt to say thank you on behalf of that 4th grade girl who didn’t write a letter but found safety, knowledge and a bit of myself in Margaret Simon, Stephanie Hirsch, Rachel Robinson and Allison Monceau.  Thank you for the space to say the word period. The word sex. Thank you for the space to be a tween girl. As I watched the documentary, I wished I could say thank you for Katherine in Forever, but I don’t think that one ever made it to our school media center. 

Watching these 1970s and 1980s interviews featured in the documentary, I am struck by how brave you are. I am also struck by the fact that Pat Buchanan has been a horrible human for his entire life. Wow.  But I especially struck by your bravery when I put your comments in the context of my 1980s childhood in a small Midwestern town, the town where Just As Long As We’re Together mysteriously disappeared from the classroom library and sex education in 7th grade was our 50-something science teacher telling us about his wife’s period and having us draw penises on construction paper (cue a 7th grade boy calling out that he needs a posterboard for the size of his penis). 

Watching your story as a 43-year-old mother and wife, I also was struck by this quote: “I was for so long a good girl trying to please others … Enough of this. I have to live.” And with this quote, grown up me is just as inspired by you as schoolgirl me was by Stephanie Hirsch.  It’s a funny thing passing 40. I don’t think I’m necessarily in a midlife crisis, but I definitely feel the chapters of my life turning, and there are days when I feel like that tween girl again-physically, mentally, emotionally, it feels like everything is in the middle of change, but it’s not a change I can name or figure out, I just hope to face it with bravery and hope. 

So thank you for inspiring me and so many others all these years. That evening, I didn’t just add Wifey to my Amazon cart. My 30-year-old copy of Just as Long As We’re Together still sits on my shelf, and I bought all things Peter Hatcher for my son a few years ago, but it’s been a while since I was checking out Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret from the school media center, so I added a new copy. I never read Forever and didn’t even know you wrote an adult novel, so I added those as well and made a goal of reading through all of your books, some for the first time, some for the second, third or fourth time. 

And if it’s okay, I’m going to write you letters about each one. Maybe you’ll stumble upon those letters one day, but probably not. Maybe they’ll inspire someone to pick up one of the books and find some of that inspiration that has kept me going and that person will make it through something of their own. Maybe the letters will just sit on my blog page, and that’s okay too, because at least I’ll be giving you your flowers. 

Thank you for writing, for writing bravely and honestly. Thank you for making a difference.