By Marion Filler
Judy Blume, now 86, took the literary world by storm in 1970 with Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret, and author Rachelle Bergstein became an early fan when she was just 9 years old.
In her biography, The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us, Bergstein describes Blume’s transition from a New Jersey housewife to a best-selling author and feminist who changed adolescent America — and the world — forever.

“She [Blume] wasn’t the first author I fell in love with, but when I was 9 years old, she pulled me across another major milestone — she wrote a book that I wanted to hide from my parents,” says Bergstein in her introduction.
Bergstein will discuss The Genius of Judy at the Morristown Festival of Books on Oct. 19, 2024. Her Saturday morning talk starts at 10 o’clock in the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. Admission is free. Dozens of writers will speak throughout the day at five venues within easy walking distance in downtown Morristown.
Judy Blume’s unique voice bore a message for adolescents. Then as now, youngsters were perpetually curious about sex and the changing female body. Blume explained it in story form using groundbreaking vocabulary. Frank references to menstruation, masturbation, contraception, and the unforgettable mantra: “We must, we must, we must improve our bust,” were rarities at the time.
Despite being banned in some states, Blume persisted book by book, to reach an audience of almost 90 million. The appeal was obvious: Young people could identify with characters and situations similar to their own. “She’s not special — she’s real,” says Bergstein.
Libraries again are facing requests to ban books — to a lesser degree than in the past, but that could change after the presidential election. According to Bergstein, the target has moved from sex to publications about gender (LGBTQ -lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or questioning) and Black history.
Bergstein began writing the Genius of Judy in 2022 under difficult circumstances. After recovering from COVID-19, she was devastated by a diagnosis of breast cancer that required months of chemotherapy.
“When I was working on the proposal for this book, Roe vs. Wade was overturned,” she explains, “and it gave the story a sense of urgency that I felt was really important. A lot of Judy’s work in subtle ways stresses the importance of sexual freedom just at the moment when those rights were being taken away from women on a national scale.”
Writing the Genius of Judy was a welcome diversion for Bergstein. After countless hours combing through Blume’s papers at Yale University and material in the Elizabeth Public Library, and reviewing decades of conversations and interviews, the biography was published this year.
It is an expansive historical perspective that explores Blume’s personal life, with excerpts from her many books.
“I felt I got to know her,” says Bergstein. And so will her readers.