When you’re young and you’re growing up, there are lots of changes that happen. Everything is foreign. But when you’re a girl and you’re faced with the prospect of your first period – that is TRAUMATIZING.
Truthfully, even though you know that other girls are going through it, you feel completely foreign and alone.
Puberty is a bitch. Legitimately, the ultimate bitch.
But for over 50 years, one book about what it’s like to have your first period and come into acceptance of it, has stood the test of time. What is it? Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. Now, before you all come at me for saying that it’s about your first period, fully aware that it is about more. However, that’s what this writer remembers it for.
Judy Blume held off for a long time allowing the book to be made into a movie. But the book was adapted by Kelly Fremon Craig (The Edge of Seventeen). She also directs the movie about a young girl named Margaret, who moves from New York to New Jersey, and has to navigate all the changes that brings, while navigating all of the changes within herself.
“I got the greatest email from Judy where she said if someone were to make a film of one of her books, she hoped it would have the same tone and feeling that The Edge of Seventeen had. It’s maybe the greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten, because she has always been a North star for me as a writer,” Kelly Fremon Craig said to Deadline. “What’s helpful is that everybody who reads it sees themselves in it. I read it in the late ’80s and didn’t know it was written in 1970.”
The movie stars Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Benny Safdie, and Abby Ryder Fortson. Judy Blume was on set during the filming and also serves as a producer.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret premieres in theaters April 28.
