JudyBlume2009.jpg: Carl Lender[1] of Flickr.com derivative work: Solid State Survivor (talk) · CC BY 2.0

Judy Blume wrote young-adult novels that treated puberty, sex, and death as ordinary subjects worth taking seriously rather than avoiding, starting with Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. in 1970. Her books have sold more than 82 million copies in 32 languages, and she has also become one of the most frequently banned authors in American schools and libraries for the same directness that made her popular with young readers; Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.