Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume Read Online Free PDF Page A

two. So why is it that the seemingly mundane experiences are the ones we can recall with such vividness that they seem to have happened only yesterday? A baby blue nightgown. The smell of Charlie. An eighth grader copping a feel under a natty turquoise blue sweater.
    Most experiences don’t earn the recognition of a Hallmark card or an announcement in the newspaper or a notation on a calendar. They’re moments that last maybe minutes and yet remain for a lifetime in our memories, turning an experience that could be summed up in a footnote and stretching it to mythical proportions (much like I remembered the party scene from Deenie as taking up the majority of the book, only to discover recently that it was less than a single page at the end of the story).
    So why do these seemingly insignificant experiences take on such significance? Judy Blume knew the answer. They’re significant because we’re significant. They help define who we are and contribute to who we will become. They’re moments that matter because they matter to us.
    They’re not the July fourth fireworks display that you’re expected to ooh and ahh over with the other three hundred people gathered by the parks and recreation building. They aren’t choreographed to symphonic music and accompanied by parades. Instead, they’re the sparklers we remember holding between our fingers, mesmerized by the sparks spitting from the burning wire stick and how they leave a trail of light as we wave them in figure eights above our head.
    They’re girl moments. Woman moments. Human moments. And all these years later, it’s what continues to make them Judy Blume moments as well.
    Jennifer O’Connell still wears Estee Lauder Starlit Pink lipstick and has been known to light up a sparkler or two, but she no longer wears scratchy blue nylon sweaters or nightgowns with embroidered rosebuds. The author of four novels, including Insider Dating, Off the Record, Dress Rehearsal, and Bachelorette #1, Jennifer continues to live out Judy Blume moments in her teen books, including Plan B and The Book of Luke. You can find Jennifer at www.jenniferconnell.com and www.jennyoconnell.com.

The One That Got Away
    Stephanie Lessing
    The first thing I learned from Judy Blume was that God is the wrong one to ask for bigger breasts. If I had written Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, I would have included a scene where Margaret finally visits a decent plastic surgeon. Not only for Margaret’s sake but because I had a certain body part of my own that needed a little fixing.
    The second thing I learned from Judy Blume was that I wasn’t normal. I had nothing in common with Margaret or Gretchen or Nancy or any of the other girls in her books. They were the kinds of girls I hung out with in school. They were girls I pretended to like, pretended to be friends with, and pretended to be, but I was nothing like them. I was always watching them, trying to figure them out, trying on their personas, and trying not to get caught. Judy Blume was a master at getting inside normal girls’ heads, and I was grateful for the blueprints. Without Judy Blume, I never would have been able to pull it off. Because of Judy Blume, I fooled everyone.
    I never felt like a regular girl. I had too much to hide.
    I remember all those sleepover parties where the main activity was making a list of all the boys we liked. When we handed over our little folded-up pieces of paper, all the other girls always had the same two or three names written down. They must have been surprised to see that I had written down the name of our homeroom teacher, Mr. Nettles. When they looked up at me for an explanation, I pretended I was joking even though I honestly believed he and I were both patiently waiting for me to finish middle school so that we could finally settle down. I was constantly doing the math in my diary. “When I turn thirteen, he’ll only be