Judy Blume Classic Getting Movie Adaptation 50 Years Later

Almost 50 years since Judy Blume’s coming-of-age story was published, Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret is being adapted into a film. The 1970 classic comes to theaters April 28, starring Abby Ryder Forston as Margaret, Kathy Bates as her grandma, Sylvia, and Benny Safdie and Rachel McAdams as her parents Herb and Barbara.

Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret follows sixth-grader Margaret Simon as she struggles with a crisis of faith due to her parents’ interfaith marriage and all the trials of adolescence – from buying a bra to menstruation and beyond, as per Lionsgate. Blume had long resisted granting the film rights to her beloved tale, but the author’s tune changed when producer James L. Brooks and writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig approached her with a pitch, the duo told Entertainment Weekly.

“She was very nervous that someone would turn the film into something very glossy and pretty, where all the edges were sanded off,” Craig explained of Blume’s hesitation in turning the story into a film. “When I sat down with her, she had just seen my first film, The Edge of Seventeen, and she expressed that that made her feel confident that I was going to embrace all the flaws and nuances. That gave her confidence that the film would have the same honesty that she is so known for.”

Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret has been censored over the years due to its personal themes, but the controversy surrounding the book only intrigued Craig more. “It’s amazing to me that something that half the population goes through – growing breasts, having your period – could be censored,” she said. “It’s absolutely insanity. I still can’t wrap my brain around it.”

A self-described “diehard Judy Blume fan,” Craig said she felt understood the first time she picked up Blume’s book. “It was one of those experiences as a kid where you just are like, ‘Someone gets me now.’ I need to read absolutely everything this person does because somebody out there sees me,” she recalled. “It was like she had a little window into my very personal, complicated thoughts and feelings and desires and was putting it all down in print. She says the unsayable. What’s so amazing about her is it feels like she told you the truth that all the adults tiptoed around.” Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret premieres only in theaters April 28.