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June 6, 2007

What's your "Judy Blume moment of truth"?

Sometimes you just have to eat it or wear it

I’m delighted to announce the publication of a brand spankin’ new anthology called Everything I Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume, which includes essays by authors like Meg Cabot, Megan McCafferty, Julie Kenner…and moi. Our topics run the gamut from bullying and masturbation to romance and rejection, but one thing they all have in common is our shared love for the Judy Blume novels we grew up reading.

Seriously, thank God for Judy Blume. When you’re muddling through the hellish quagmire of middle school, it’s good to know that someone out there knows exactly what you’re going through and isn’t afraid to put it all down on paper. Remember waiting (and waiting and waiting) for your breasts to develop? And despairing because your parents just didn’t understand you? And dealing with the soul-crushing reality that all the really cute, sporty boys preferred your busty, bubbly best friend to you, just because you were a freakishly flat-chested introvert who preferred Sylvia Plath to Seventeen?

(Note: I’m not saying any of this happened to ME, mind you. No. This is merely a “for instance.”)

The best part of contributing to this anthology was the chance to re-read the Judy Blume novels as an adult. If you haven’t picked up Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret or (gasp!) Forever lately, you’re missing out. I enjoy them just as much—if not more—now than I did when I was in the publisher’s target age group. Except now I identify with all the parent characters instead of just the teen characters. Judy Blume is so deft and subtle with her characterization, but everything you need to know about the relationships is right there in the dialogue and the details. Her stories are timeless and hilarious and painfully honest. They're just as relevant today as they were when they were originally published. Woman’s a genius.

My essay explores the ways in which my perception of my mother has changed as I’ve made the tumultuous journey from adolescent to adulthood and examines the mother characters in Forever, Tiger Eyes, and Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself, but really, my hands-down, all-time favorite Judy Blume book is Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing. Where the rascally little brother is forever stealing the spotlight and charming the entire world with his jaw-dropping shenanigans? My girlfriends and I still break out the phrase “eat it or wear it” from time to time. As in:

Friend #1: Ooh, I really want to eat this last cookie, but I really shouldn’t—I skipped the gym this morning and I’m PMS-y and bloated and refined sugar fat calories guilt body image blah, blah, blah…
Friend #2: Dude, eat it or wear it.

Or:

Friend #1: Hmm, I’m a little tipsy and I do have to work tomorrow. I probably shouldn’t finish this whole margarita. I mean, we’re not in college anymore.
Friend #2: Eat it or wear it.

Words to live by, really. (And we invariably end up eating it.)

So drop by your local bookstore or library today, pick up your favorite Judy Blume novel, and prepare for a blast from your past. Oh, and grab the new anthology, too. Isn’t adolescence is so much more enjoyable now that you’re safely past it?

Posted by Beth at 10:43 PM | Comments (3)

Comments

Posted by: Whitney at June 6, 2007 9:20 PM

Posted by: laurenjharwood at June 7, 2007 11:54 AM

Posted by: Eileen at June 7, 2007 3:32 PM