It's still rare, for example, to see a character putting on a sanitary pad on screen. The film also shares an honest quality with Blume's book. There was something so beautiful and true about that," she tells BBC Culture. "She searches for a sense of the divine and doesn't find it in the typical places she finds it alone in her room. That was the part that really struck Craig when she re-read the book. Like so much of Blume's work, it's also a novel of self-exploration. Margaret's Jewish dad and Christian mother have left her to decide her faith for herself and so she looks for God, in temple, in church – and talks to him. She can't wait to get her period, wear a bra and be kissed by a boy. Uprooted from her New York home to the New Jersey suburbs, 11-year-old Margaret Simon (played with immense charm and warmth by Abby Ryder Fortson) desperately wants to be normal. The film is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, faithful to the book and nostalgic but not overly so.
It was important to me to do right by her, to make a film that felt like a reflection of her and the spirit of her book," Craig says, describing the moment when Blume gave her the rights as "wildly surreal". "I am such a fan of the book and such a fan of Judy. But Margaret, arguably the most beloved of her books, had never been filmed before Blume entrusted it to Craig and her mentor, director James L Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News). There's a 1978 television movie of her 1975 novel Forever – very unmistakably a product of the 1970s – and a 2013 film version of Tiger Eyes, co-written by Blume and her son Larry, who also directs. The film isn't the first screen adaptation of Blume's work. Now a new film version, adapted and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, is set to introduce her work to new audiences, while the Amazon Prime documentary Judy Blume Forever, co-directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, explores her life and her continuing influence. Its title has seeped into popular culture, quoted by everyone from Ted Lasso to Deadpool, and the book itself remains a coming-of-age rite for young girls, transcending cultural and generational boundaries. Published in 1970, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret remains her best-selling book. 12 of the best books of the year so far
Her books are often about young people getting to know themselves and learning how to navigate the world, written with sensitivity, compassion and an acute understanding of the things teenagers worry about. Judy Blume's books – more than 25 novels for children and adults – are often celebrated for their openness about sex, menstruation, bullying and other teenage concerns, but if this was their sole strength, it's doubtful people would feel as deeply about them as they do.
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