Schools first began teaching sex ed in the early 20th century, but it wasn’t until World War II that the practice became widespread and seen as a social good (soldiers were regularly shown films warning of venereal disease and advising condom use). This helps explain why Margaret feels such pressure to choose a religion once she moves to the suburbs-her parents, as people who don’t identify as any one religion or attend religious services at all, would’ve been outliers. Kennedy as president in 1960 represented a boost for many American Catholics, and in the 1970s, religions considered “alternative” (like Hinduism) were becoming more popular. While mainstream Protestantism represented a large percentage of churchgoers during the postwar years (and the dominant religious voice in the country), other religions were also becoming more mainstream-for instance, the election of John F. Following World War II, families flocked to the suburbs (as Margaret’s does) and many families became regular churchgoers. With her husband, she runs a nonprofit bookstore in Key West.Īre You There God? It’s Me, Margaret deals primarily with two subjects: the role of religion in mid-20th century America, and puberty. Blume has been married three times and has several children and grandchildren, several of whom have either inspired Blume’s books or encouraged her to write about certain subjects. This led Blume to become an activist against banning books. Since the 1980s, Blume’s books have been challenged regularly, mostly due to her books’ frank portrayals of such things as homosexuality, teen sex, masturbation, and in Margaret’s case, menstruation and religion. Forever has been frequently banned since its publication, as it was one of the first young adult novels to portray teen sex as normal.
During this period, she wrote some of her best-known books, including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Forever. In 1969, she published her first children’s book and continued to write prolifically throughout the 1970s.
Blume did just that and married a lawyer in 1959 before graduating with her education degree from New York University in 1961. Instead, she was raised to be a homemaker, and her mother insisted she get a degree in education just in case she ever had to work. Though Judy Blume spent her childhood thinking up stories in her head, she didn’t aspire to be a writer.
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