--- description: The teen-lit icon on her new adult novel, putting trigger warnings on books and that catchphrase title: 10 Questions with Judy Blume image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23f0ea722c6a7623/698851e50b72e31f186e430e/judy-blume-10-questions.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [10 Questions](/tag/10-questions/) ## 10 Questions Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 10 Questions with Judy Blume  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent May 28, 2015 9:51 AM CUT  NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 07: Judy Blume attends the "Tiger Eyes" New York Premiere at AMC Empire on June 7, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Rommel Demano/FilmMagic) NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 07: Judy Blume attends the "Tiger Eyes" New York Premiere at AMC Empire on June 7, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Rommel Demano/FilmMagic)Rommel Demano—FilmMagic  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent May 28, 2015 9:51 AM CUT **The three plane crashes in** **_In the Unlikely Event_** **really happened in 1950s New Jersey, where you grew up. How much of your writing is based on your experience?** It’s inspired by those tragic events. My father was a dentist, like Dr. Osner in the book. He was called in to identify victims by dental records. I knew that, but I don’t remember thinking it through. Maybe I didn’t want to think about it. No one ever talked to any of us about it. We were just left to imagine it. **Why did you decide to write for adults again?** I never wrote young-adult novels. I know everybody calls me a young-adult writer, but the truth of it is there was no “young adult” when I was writing the books that you all remember. I hate labels. I mean, go back and forth and read whatever you want. Nobody should judge you for what you want to read, ever. **_Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret_** **taught me more about girls’ changing bodies than maybe my parents did. Were your parents open about such topics growing up?** No, no. No. There are some wonderful books today that parents can get their kids about puberty so they’ll know the facts. Fiction is more about where you are emotionally. So even though you may have learned facts from _Margaret_ or some others, that’s not why I wrote those books. I didn’t write them as teaching tools. I just wanted to be honest. **Is that why your books have remained popular for so long?** If you had asked me all those years ago, “Will your books still be around when you’re 77?” I would have laughed. What a crazy idea. But how lucky I am that they are and that my readers are still there. **Which are your favorites?** I’m not as attached to _Forever_ … as many of my readers. I’m attached to the books that brought me my first readers. The _Fudge_ books brought me many of the boys, and _Margaret_ brought me my first girl readers. My earliest readers are now 50-ish, the same age as my kids. **Where did the “We must increase our bust” catchphrase come from?** We all did that. That was just something we knew. I have no idea where it came from. It was preteen lore. **You’ve been very active in fighting against censorship. Have you heard of trigger warnings?** No, what are trigger warnings? **Some college students want trigger warnings in front of classics like Ovid that would say, “There’s going to be a reference to murder or rape here, so if you’re particularly sensitive to that, then don’t read this.”** That is making my blood boil! And I have heard of it, now that you tell me what it is. I mean, Please! Let’s grow up. **Why does it make you upset?** Why are we treating college students like babies? You’re supposed to be challenged in college. We can have our beliefs and still read and discuss things. We don’t have to become zealots and say, “This has to be removed, and this has to be removed” and “You have to be warned here because oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!” There are many, many challenges to books. All you have to do is look at a bulletin of the National Coalition Against Censorship or the ALA’s _Freedom to Read_ newsletter and you will see that there are still plenty of things being challenged. The desire to censor or ban or challenge is contagious. **You tweet a lot about** **_Mad Men_** **. Do you have another show that can take its place?** My husband George and I like to have a series that we watch together when we’re in Key West. I watch _The Americans_. We both watch _Girls_. We like _Girls_. **Do you think** **_Girls_** **has inherited things that you began talking about decades ago?** She’s very smart on her own. She’s good, Lena Dunham. –ELIANA DOCKTERMAN FOR VIDEO OF OTHER INTERVIEWEES, GO TO time.com/10questions ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3899469/10-questions-judy-blume/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3899469/10-questions-judy-blume/"},"headline":"10 Questions with Judy Blume","datePublished":"2015-05-28T09:51:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:41:29.671Z","description":"The teen-lit icon on her new adult novel, putting trigger warnings on books and that catchphrase","url":"https://time.com/3899469/10-questions-judy-blume/","keywords":["10 Questions","Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23f0ea722c6a7623/698851e50b72e31f186e430e/judy-blume-10-questions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23f0ea722c6a7623/698851e50b72e31f186e430e/judy-blume-10-questions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Tiger Eyes\" New York Premiere","caption":"\"Tiger Eyes\" New York Premiere","creditText":"Rommel Demano—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/10-questions/","name":"10 Questions"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3899469/10-questions-judy-blume/","name":"10 Questions with Judy Blume"}}]}] ```