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Diablo Cody on Judy Blume

In the latest installment of her recurring Entertainment Weekly column, Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody writes – quite thoughtfully – about the beloved YA author Judy Blume, and all of the stuff she learned by reading Blume’s books.

If Picasso had his Blue Period, then Judy Blume had her Period Period. Man, did I learn a lot about menstruation from these books. [Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret] was the one that got passed around feverishly in school. Not only did it teach us a (futile) breast enhancement exercise, it introduced us to ”Two Minutes in the Closet,” a game we played at many parties thereafter.

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You have to wonder why no one’s made a big-screen adaptation of Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself — a bracingly vivid story of a Jewish girl in postwar Florida — or Forever, an oft-banned tale of love and (virginity) loss. I imagine it’s because these stories belong to young women. Real young women, not singing Disney cheerleaders, hair-flipping pop stars, or cartoonish socialites. ”Judy’s girls” are imperfect and unsure; they tend to vacillate maddeningly between outspokenness and passivity…. It’s definitely not the stuff of Hollywood.

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