Judy Blume Was My Sex Ed Teacher

Photo by Wild Eucalyptus on Unsplash

My parents never had “The Talk” with me.

As a teenager, the topic of sex was completely avoided, other than warning me if I went out with a boy to make sure he “behaved.” Everything was talked about in code, but it was a code I understood.

I could not get laid before marriage.

Back in the early 1980s, sex education was not consistently taught in schools. Other than a biology lesson about flowers pollinating, the topic of how humans procreate was never broached.

So I did what most other teenage girls I knew did: we taught ourselves about sex by reading books. There were also sorts of extremely sexy books, most notably by my favorite Jackie Collins. However, when I started becoming curious about sex and what it was all about, reading Collins was like jumping in to the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim. Sexuality was daunting and confusing.

Until Judy Blume came along.

Are You There Judy? It’s Me, Ree

My Judy Blume books from the 1980s. They are worn out from multiple readings.

I first discovered Judy Blume in middle school through such books as Blubber, Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, and Otherwise Known…