Blume books helped to fill in the blanks

Always on the lookout for fun ways to unplug, I wasn’t sure the “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” movie was the right pick for a friends’ gathering, but I couldn’t resist because I was so excited to see it. Turns out, it was just what a group of 50-something women needed. Six of us sat giggling in a row, eating popcorn and fondly remembering the book that made such an indelible impression on us. The movie didn’t try to modernize the story, and it was a nice flashback to slower times, filled with days of running through sprinklers and exploring our neighborhoods while ideas were forming in our brains about what it meant to become a young woman.

After the movie, we chatted and reminisced about what the book had meant to each of us. We had all but forgotten that growing up in the ’70s meant topics like getting your period and sex were taboo and mainly spoken of in private. In fifth grade, my elementary school offered a private evening class “Just for Girls” and we attended with eager anticipation of what we would be learning. A couple of boys even tried to dress up as girls so that they could sneak in to hear the coveted information. That night, girls and their moms watched the “What Every Girl Should Know” film, and I remember a lot of vague information that didn’t make sense. That’s when Judy Blume’s books came to fill in the blanks.

At age 11, I used my babysitting money to buy the Judy Blume boxed set (which I still have and cherish to this day), and I devoured this book a dozen times, each time hopeful I was getting closer to the day my own period or boobs would finally arrive.

I truly felt that if I read it enough, perhaps I could manifest the transformation. It would be a few more years before I would blossom seemingly overnight from wishful nerdy girl to someone trying to hide my C cups that didn’t seem to fit the rest of my insecure self.

Watching the movie, I realized it was the book that inspired me to start wearing shoes without socks and to list boys I liked in my journal. Sadly, it took little to make the boy list — a quick glance or “Hello” could garner a mention. The bar was low.

That same year, I also had my copy of Judy Blume’s “Forever” confiscated at school. Admittedly, that book was well beyond my years of maturity. Seeing a photo of myself at 11, I am struck by how young I was compared to how I perceived myself to be.

The average kid today is exposed to a lot via the internet, and books like these might seem quite tame. Then again, today’s kids don’t seem as worried about things that are naturally happening to their bodies, and that is, no doubt, a positive change.