Judy Blume Forever Is an Emotional Celebration of an Author and Her Impact

If you’re of a certain age where the monthly Scholastic Book Club flyers being dropped on your school desk was akin to a spiritual moment, then Judy Blume is likely a formative figure in your growing up. Her books were a constant in the Club’s rotation, thriving way past their release date cycle to welcome generations of young readers into a life-long love of reading. She had an amazing array of entry points to her work too. For all genders, there were Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Blubber (​​1974) and the Fudge books that were page-turners. But for young girls, Blume was essentially the internet before it existed. Her books, like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), Deenie (1973) and Forever (1975), were resources for the unspoken. Her stories included candid references and sometimes full narratives digging into the mechanics and emotions around menstruation, masturbation, body acceptance and non-judgmental premarital sex. Blume’s books were passed around like knowledge contraband, especially by girls from strict families who never spoke of such topics, or attendees of religious schools that regurgitated dogmas meant to make young women feel guilty or bad about their “impure” thoughts.

But what about Blume, herself? As much as her books have become seminal and beloved, the woman behind the stories has remained elusive. At age 83, Blume becomes the subject of the documentary Judy Blume Forever, remedying that in an informative and deeply emotional way. It features the still spritely and feisty author telling her own story, filling in the details of her own coming of age as a woman of her generation who had one foot in the expected—including a cold marriage and content motherhood—and the other foot frustratingly tapping towards something else. 

The documentary gives us the life story of Blume, from childhood to now, presenting a fully-formed human looking back on a stellar career that just happened to reinvent young adult fiction. For those who just know Blume’s bibliography, this is a fascinating connector of the writer to her works as it pulls back the curtain on the events and experiences that inspired some of her most famous books. And for the Blume superfans, Judy Blume Forever expands upon the correspondence she received from kids, some of whom she established lasting pen pal relationships with, including two who are now adults and appear in the film. They provide the most emotionally affecting and personal moments of the doc, with author and readers sharing how Blume’s books became a real-life bridge and how moving that became all around. 

Directors Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok do an exceptional job balancing Blume’s personal story against the backdrop of the women’s movement. They illuminate her childhood through home videos, family photos and archival television interviews and news footage. Wisely, they have Judy tell her story to camera, both as the primary talking head and as the reader of excerpts from her stories. Witnessing the passionate way she still performs her character’s voices speaks volumes about how intimate she remains with her work, even to the point of tears. Blume is not jaded, and the doc warmly frames how she’s remained present and involved regarding the impact of her stories, and the cultural waves that have occurred because of them.