Are You there Judy? It's Me, Susan.

Wowzers, but Judy Blume was my savior as a young woman. She helped me through those dark adolescent years -- helping me to understand that I wasn't a complete freak, and that I wasn't alone in my angst. Margaret was a late bloomer (hey! me too!). Deenie had a physical disfigurement that made her feel all creepy and weird (hey! me too!). Karen's parent's were getting a messy divorce (hey! me too!). Katherine grappled with her emerging sexuality (hey! me too!). 

(Doesn't she look just like someone you could really talk with?)

Point is, Judy Blume understood kids. She not only knew what they were thinking and going through, but she knew how to relate to them in a way that parents and friends couldn't always satisfy. Sure, my mom was great, and open about the "sex-talks," and always too willing to share information with me (she bought me Our Bodies, Ourselves, after all!). But when you're a tween (a term that didn't exist back in my day; you were either a teenage or you weren't yet), sometimes the last person you want to talk to is your mother, no matter how great she might be. Likewise for the friends...they might love you, and share many of the same feelings and problems - but it can be really hard to open yourself up to your peers when you're not always sure of acceptance or even able to articulate your own feelings. 

But I never had to worry about Judy judging me. Judy never made me feel weird, she never made me feel alone. Rather, she helped me to understand, in a way that nobody else could, that I was not a freak, and that, yes, I would come through it all okay. And I think that was because she was an author. Not a mother, not a friend, not a kindly aunt...not anybody that I had to actually have an awkward conversation with. Instead, Judy wrote stories about kids like me...kids that might have had some of the same problems...but, I felt, she was writing especially to me. And that's what I found so powerful about her books; her amazing ability to connect on such a personal level.

I Googled Judy, and wasn't surprised at all by the results; that her books have been frequently challenged and banned. Please visit her website. She's got a great section on censorship there. I especially relate when she says, "I wish the censors could read the letters kids write," and goes on to quote a correspondent, "Dear Judy, I don't know where I stand in the world. I don't know who I am. That's why I read, to find myself. Elizabeth, age 13." 

Yes, Elizabeth, I totally get that. And, Elizabeth, I'm sorry so many others don't.