Today’s Flashback Friday is brought to you by interfaith marriage and feminine hygiene products.
Who among us did not quake with fear, upon reading Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret, to think they’d have to assemble a belt and pad every 28 days once they got their period? I know I was pretty confused at the very least, until my mother explained to me how in Ye Olden Tymes they didn’t have adhesive strips and had to wear cotton napkins the size of phone books, held in place by belts that resembled bra straps.
They tortured our mothers, do you see this?
Archaic menstrual products aside, Are you There God? was a fantastic young adult book about religion, puberty and adolescence. So tenderly and believably written, one could almost feel when reading it that Margaret was a real girl confessing her thoughts and fears to a God she’s not entirely sure about. I remember wishing, like Margaret, that my breasts would grow (later regretting that wish when they kept growing), and that I would not be the last of my friends to get her period. I also remember that feeling, when you fought with your best girlfriends, that it was the end of the world.
I read a lot of Judy Blume in my single-digit years, but this book was definitely the one that stuck with me the most. Do you have another favorite Judy Blume book, or a memory about Are You There God? Hit the comments and tell me about it.
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