‘It helped normalise puberty’
THALIA PELLEGRINI, 47, FROM NORTH LONDON, REMEMBERS HOW JUDY BLUME’S ARE YOU THERE, GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET CHALLENGED THE STIGMA OF PERIODS...
As a 12-year-old girl, I was an avid reader, and every Saturday, I’d go to the library to get a pile of books out.
One day, I accidentally stumbled upon Are You There,
God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. It was the first of her books I read and I can clearly remember lying on my parents’ bed, and devouring every page.
It was like being transported to another world – a very different one from mine growing up in north London. In Blume’s fictional pre-teen America, everyone seemed to be so much more mature and I was blown away that the main character, Margaret, also 12, was openly talking with her mum about periods and buying bras.
My period hadn’t started yet and I hadn’t had that chat with my mum. It wasn’t a shameful topic – I just grew up in an environment where we didn’t talk openly about those things.
It was the same for lots of my friends and I think that’s why we all read Blume’s books. She seemed to encapsulate the preteen experience in a way that no one else seemed to be doing.
In the story, Margaret is desperate to start her period, but I was daunted by it – and I was totally baffled as to what a sanitary belt was!
About six months after finishing the book, my period started. By then, I understood more what was happening and the book had helped normalise the situation. I wasn’t fazed when I told my mum, who was very excited. If I hadn’t read the book, it would have been a different experience.
Like Margaret, I had a huge crush on the popular boy in school – who I didn’t get to kiss in the closet, sadly. And I recollect my school friends and I reenacting the famous, ‘I must, I must, increase my bust’ exercise that Margaret and her friends do.
I don’t know if I’ll see the film. I’m sure my sons, 11 and 13, wouldn’t be interested! I might watch it one day. After all, this is a book that captured a very important part of my life. It made all the things that felt scary and new at the time more manageable and normal. That’s why I’ll always remember it so powerfully. ●thaliapellegrini.com