VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Leah Wolchok & Davina Pardo On Judy Blume, New Documentary ‘Judy Blume Forever’

In Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok‘s documentary Judy Blume Forever, viewers get to learn more about Judy Blume‘s life and the inspiration for her books, such as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Superfudge.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview founder Erik Meers, Wolchok revealed why they wanted to make a documentary about Blume and what she did for young American girls with her books.

“Judy was the first author to really go deep into the interior lives of girls and to what they were thinking and how they were feeling about their bodies, discovering their bodies, sort of questioning what it was going to feel like when they got their periods, growing boobs, but also their relationships to their friends and their family, their fears about divorce and anxiety,” producer Wolchok said. “And Judy’s books really dove into every topic that was on every kid’s mind in the most relatable way. Her books are so emotionally accessible, they feel they feel like you’re reading your own thoughts reflected back to you.”

Producer Pardo went on to discuss what they both learned about Blume while researching for the documentary.

“One of the things we learned is that Judy has had the most extraordinary relationship with her readers,” she began. “Not only do women weep when they meet Judy, you know, 30 or 40 years after reading her books, people have this intense emotional visceral reaction to her, but Judy’s had an extensive correspondence with her readers over decades. Since Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret came out, children have been writing to Judy and pouring their hearts out to her about everything from, you know, troubles with siblings to funny questions about what’s happening with their body and puberty to really deep intense outpourings about troubles at home and grief and trauma and the incredible thing is Judy wrote back, you know, as much as she could. She wrote back and she actually stayed in touch with some of these readers for 40 years and we were really lucky to be able to interview a couple of them in the film and to tell their stories in the film.”

Judy Blume Forever is now available for streaming on Prime Video.