Judy Blume is one of the most beloved, most banned, and most influential authors in the history of American literature.
For more than five decades, she has spoken directly and fearlessly to children, teenagers, and adults about the things that truly matter puberty, sexuality, religion, divorce, bullying, identity, and the messy, magnificent business of growing up.
Her books have sold over 85 million copies worldwide, been translated into 32 languages, and have shaped the reading lives of multiple generations of young people across the globe. Named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, Judy Blume has won more than 90 literary awards and she has spent just as much energy fighting against the censorship of her work and the work of others as she has spent writing it.
In 2025, her iconic 1975 novel Forever was adapted into a Netflix series, introducing her most controversial work to an entirely new generation and reminding the world why Judy Blume has never stopped mattering.
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Judith Sussman Blume: History · Bio · Photo
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| Wiki Facts & About Data | |
| Full Name: | Judith Sussman Blume |
| Born: | February 12, 1938 |
| Age: | 88 years old |
| Birthplace: | Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Author, Activist, Bookseller |
| Height: | 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) |
| Religion: | Jewish |
| Parents: | Rudolph Sussman (Father, dentist), Esther Rosenfeld (Mother, homemaker) |
| Siblings: | David Sussman (older brother) |
| Spouse: | John M. Blume (m. 1959–1975); Thomas A. Kitchens (m. 1976–1978); George Cooper (m. 1987–present) |
| Children: | Randy Lee Blume (daughter, born 1961), Lawrence Andrew Blume (son, born 1963) |
| Net Worth: | $10 million – $25 million |
Early Life
Judy Blume was born Judith Sussman on February 12, 1938, in Elizabeth, New Jersey a city that would later serve as the backdrop for several of her most beloved novels, including In the Unlikely Event (2015). She was raised in a middle-class Jewish family alongside her older brother David, who was five years her senior.
Her father, Rudolph Sussman, was a dentist, and her mother, Esther Rosenfeld, was a homemaker. It was a conventional American household for the 1940s and 1950s, but inside young Judy, an extraordinarily rich inner life was already taking shape.
From childhood, Judy was a voracious reader and a natural storyteller. She spent her girlhood dreaming of becoming all kinds of things a cowgirl, a detective, a spy, a great actress, even a ballerina but never a writer. Writing, she would later explain, never occurred to her as a real career option.
What she did do was absorb everything around her: the anxieties of adolescence, the unspoken tensions of family life, the complicated social world of childhood friendships and school corridors. She also had a habit of creating elaborate stories for her paper dolls a quiet, private exercise in narrative invention that she would only later recognise as the seed of her literary identity.
Her Jewish heritage was a quiet but present force in her upbringing. She attended synagogue, observed Jewish holidays, and has credited her faith as a source of reflection though she has also written honestly about spiritual doubt, most famously through the character of Margaret in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., who wrestles with questions of faith and identity in a way that millions of readers across denominations and none have found deeply relatable.
As a teenager in the 1950s, Judy came of age in a world that prized conformity and silence around the very subjects sex, bodies, emotions, family conflict that she would later make her life’s work to write about honestly. That tension between the sanitised public world and the turbulent private reality of young people became the animating engine of her entire literary career.
Education
Judy Blume attended Battin High School in Elizabeth, New Jersey, graduating in 1956. She initially enrolled at Boston University, but her studies there were cut short when she was diagnosed with mononucleosis and had to withdraw.
She subsequently transferred to New York University (NYU), where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education in 1961. It was during her years at NYU that she met her first husband, John M. Blume, whom she married while still a student in 1959.
After graduating, Blume’s early adult years were focused on marriage and raising her two children rather than a career. It was only when her children began attending school that she enrolled in a writing course at NYU and began seriously pursuing fiction.
Her formal education in writing was modest she relied more on instinct, relentless drafting, and the ruthless rejection letters she received over two years before her first book was accepted. That period of rejection, she has said, taught her more about craft and persistence than any classroom ever could.
Career
Judy Blume began her writing career in the mid-1960s, at the age of 27, after her children started school and she found herself looking for a creative outlet beyond housekeeping. She initially experimented with felt art, even selling some pieces to Bloomingdale’s in New York.
But writing called more powerfully, and she began sending manuscript after manuscript to publishers. For two years, she collected nothing but rejection slips. Then, in 1969, Reilly and Lee accepted her first children’s picture book, The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo — and everything changed.
Her second book, Iggie’s House, followed in 1970. But it was her third book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., also published in 1970 that made her a household name. The novel, which follows twelve-year-old Margaret as she navigates puberty, religion, and the desire to fit in, was an immediate bestseller and a revolution in young adult literature.
Girls wrote to Blume in their thousands, telling her that reading the book made them feel seen for the first time. No one had ever written so directly and honestly about the experience of being a girl on the cusp of adolescence, and the impact was profound and lasting.
The 1970s proved to be Blume’s most explosive decade. She published 13 books in ten years, each one pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in literature for young people. Then Again, Maybe I Won’t (1971) gave boys the same honest treatment Margaret had given girls addressing wet dreams and sexual curiosity with the same candour. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), introducing the inimitable Fudge character (based on her son Lawrence), became one of the most beloved children’s series in American publishing history. Deenie (1973) addressed masturbation. Blubber (1974) confronted the brutal reality of childhood bullying. And Forever (1975) written at the request of her daughter, who wanted to read a book about teenage sex where neither character had to die as a punishment for it portrayed teenage sexuality honestly, without shame or moralistic judgment, and instantly became one of the most challenged books in American schools and libraries.
By the late 1970s, Blume had also turned her pen to adult fiction. Wifey (1978), a frank, comic novel about a bored suburban housewife, reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. Smart Women (1983) followed, also landing on the bestseller list. These books demonstrated that her appeal was not limited to young readers she had a literary voice that resonated across ages and life stages.
The 1980s brought a new and darker chapter: censorship. As conservative pressure groups intensified their campaign against books they deemed immoral or sexually explicit, Blume became one of the most challenged authors in American education.
Her books were pulled from school libraries, banned from curricula, and placed on restricted lists across dozens of states. Rather than being silenced, she became one of the most vocal and effective advocates for intellectual freedom and the right to read in American literary history. She joined the National Coalition Against Censorship, co-edited an anthology on censorship called Places I Never Meant to Be (1999), and dedicated enormous energy to fighting book bans.
Decades later, as book banning surged once again across the United States in the 2020s, she remained at the forefront of the resistance testifying, speaking, writing, and operating Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, the non-profit bookstore she and her husband George Cooper co-founded in 2018 as both a literary sanctuary and a statement of defiance.
In 2015, Blume published In the Unlikely Event, her first adult novel in 17 years a richly detailed account of a series of devastating plane crashes in Elizabeth, New Jersey in the early 1950s, inspired by events she had witnessed as a teenager. The novel debuted at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. It was, many critics noted, the work of a writer at the full height of her powers.
In 2023, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. was adapted into a critically acclaimed feature film directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, which introduced the story to an entirely new generation and sparked a fresh wave of cultural conversation about Blume’s enduring relevance.
That same year, the documentary Judy Blume Forever — directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won a Peabody Award, bringing her life and legacy to the widest audience yet. In 2025, her novel Forever was adapted into a Netflix original series produced by Mara Brock Akil and starring a new cast a modern retelling that honoured the spirit of the original while updating its world for contemporary audiences.
Awards & Nominations
- Margaret A. Edwards Award – American Library Association (ALA), 1996 – Lifetime achievement in young adult literature
- U.S. Library of Congress Living Legend – Writers and Artists category, April 2000
- Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award – 1983
- Honorary Doctor of Arts – Mount Holyoke College, 2003
- National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters – 2004
- Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame – 2010
- National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) Honor – Lifelong commitment to free speech, 2009
- Authors Guild Foundation Distinguished Service to the Literary Community Award – 2020
- Humanitarian of the Year – American Red Cross (with husband George Cooper), 2020
- E.B. White Award for Lifetime Achievement in Children’s Literature – American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2017
- Honorary Doctor of Letters – Yale University, 2021
- Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award – National Book Critics Circle, March 2024
- Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award for Bravery in Literature – Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill and the Fisher Center at Bard College, February 2024
- Florida International University (FIU) Lawrence A. Sanders Prize in Fiction – March 2025
- Miami Beach Exemplary Woman Award – City of Miami Beach Commission for Women, Women’s History Month 2025
- Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) Award – May 2025
- Women in Film (WIF) Crystal Award for Advocacy – November 2025 (with Mara Brock Akil and Regina King, for the Netflix series Forever)
- Named on Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels List, 2005
- Peabody Award – Documentary Judy Blume Forever, 2023
- Nominated for Emmy Award – Judy Blume Forever, Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special
- New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway Monmouth Rest Stop named in her honour
- More than 90 literary awards won throughout her career, including three lifetime achievement awards
Social Media
For an author in her late eighties, Judy Blume has maintained a genuinely engaged and often delightfully candid social media presence. She is active on X (formerly Twitter), where she has long been a fan favourite for her directness, warmth, and willingness to speak her mind on book banning, politics, and the books she is currently reading.
She has also been active on Instagram, where she shares updates on her life in Key West, activities at Books & Books, and milestones from her extraordinary career.
Her social media platforms became particularly vibrant spaces of engagement in 2023 and 2025, when the film adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. and the Netflix series Forever brought fresh waves of fans many of them young people encountering her work for the first time into conversation with her directly.
- X (Twitter): @judyblume – one of her most active and widely followed platforms
- Instagram: @judyblume – lifestyle, bookshop content, and career updates
- Website: judyblume.com – official hub for news, awards, and book information
Personal Life
Judy Blume has been married three times. Her first marriage was to John M. Blume, an attorney whom she met while studying at New York University.
They married in August 1959 and had two children together: a daughter, Randy Lee Blume, born in 1961, and a son, Lawrence Andrew Blume, born in 1963. Randy Lee would grow up to become a therapist with a sub-specialty in helping writers complete their work a poetic echo of her mother’s career.
Lawrence Blume went on to become a filmmaker and producer, most notably directing the 2012 film adaptation of his mother’s novel Tiger Eyes. Judy and John divorced in 1975 after Judy began to feel confined and suffocated by the limitations of her domestic role within the marriage.
Her second marriage, to physicist Thomas A. Kitchens, came quickly after her divorce from John they married in 1976 and moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, for his work. The marriage was brief and, by Judy’s own account, a mistake; the couple divorced in 1978 after just two years together.
In 1987, Judy found the relationship that would last. She married George Cooper, a former law professor turned non-fiction writer, on June 6, 1987, and the marriage has been a source of joy, intellectual companionship, and stability ever since. Cooper, through a previous relationship, brought a stepdaughter named Amanda into the family.
Together, Judy and George have built a rich life in Key West, Florida, where they co-founded and operate Books & Books at The Studios of Key West a beloved non-profit independent bookshop that has become a cultural hub for readers, writers, and literary activists. In 2020, the couple were jointly named Humanitarians of the Year by the American Red Cross in recognition of their community service.
Judy has been candid throughout her life about her health challenges. In August 2012, following a routine ultrasound before a trip to Italy, she was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer. Six weeks after the diagnosis, she underwent a mastectomy and breast reconstruction and emerged cancer-free.
She disclosed that this was actually her second cancer surgery, having previously had a hysterectomy for cervical cancer. She has spoken publicly about both experiences with characteristic openness, using her own story to demystify illness and encourage women to prioritise preventive care.
Judy is Jewish and has always maintained a connection to her heritage she once wrote a Haggadah for her children to use at Passover. She exercises daily and has long credited physical activity as central to her wellbeing. She is a grandmother her daughter Randy has a child named Elliot, who Judy has said played a direct role in encouraging her to write the later books in the Fudge series. She is described by those who know her as warm, funny, fiercely principled, and entirely free of pretension exactly the kind of person her books suggest she would be.
Throughout the resurgence of book banning across the United States in the early 2020s, Judy Blume has remained one of the most prominent and passionate voices of resistance. The American Library Association has named her one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century, yet her books continue to sell in enormous numbers and her voice continues to shape the national conversation about intellectual freedom, children’s rights, and the power of honest literature. She has stated plainly that she has never let censorship stop her from writing the truth and that she never will.
Net Worth
Judy Blume’s estimated net worth as of 2026 ranges between $10 million and $25 million, a reflection of more than five decades of sustained literary achievement.
Her wealth has been built primarily through book royalties her more than 29 novels have sold over 85 million copies worldwide and continue to generate significant income through ongoing sales, digital editions, school adoptions, and international publishing deals in 32 languages.
Additional income streams include film and television adaptation rights most notably the 2023 feature film of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. and the 2025 Netflix series Forever — as well as speaking engagements, book tour appearances, and her work as co-proprietor of Books & Books at The Studios of Key West.
She and her husband George Cooper are also understood to hold significant real estate assets, having lived in various desirable locations throughout their long marriage, including Martha’s Vineyard, Santa Fe (New Mexico), and Key West.
Despite her considerable financial success, Blume has never been ostentatious about wealth and continues to dedicate enormous personal energy to non-profit causes, particularly those related to literacy, intellectual freedom, and the fight against book censorship.
Bibliography
Children’s and Young Adult Books
- The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo (1969)
- Iggie’s House (1970)
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (1970)
- Then Again, Maybe I Won’t (1971)
- Freckle Juice (1971)
- Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972) – Fudge series, Book 1
- Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great (1972) – Fudge series, Book 2
- It’s Not the End of the World (1972)
- Deenie (1973)
- Blubber (1974)
- Forever (1975) – Young Adult
- Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself (1977)
- Superfudge (1980) – Fudge series, Book 3
- Tiger Eyes (1981)
- The Pain and the Great One (1984)
- Just as Long as We’re Together (1987)
- Fudge-a-Mania (1990) – Fudge series, Book 4
- Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson (1993)
- Double Fudge (2002) – Fudge series, Book 5
- Going, Going, Gone! with the Pain and the Great One (2008)
- Cool Zone with the Pain and the Great One (2008)
- Friend or Fiend? with the Pain and the Great One (2009)
- Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One (2007)
Adult Novels
- Wifey (1978) – New York Times Best Seller
- Smart Women (1983) – New York Times Best Seller
- Summer Sisters (1998)
- In the Unlikely Event (2015) – Debuted at #1, New York Times Best Seller
Non-Fiction / Anthologies
- Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You (1986)
- Places I Never Meant to Be (1999) – Edited anthology on censorship
Film and Television Adaptations
- Tiger Eyes (2012) – Feature film directed by Lawrence Blume (her son)
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (2023) – Feature film directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
- Judy Blume Forever (2023) – Documentary; Peabody Award winner; premiered at Sundance Film Festival
- Forever (2025) – Netflix original series produced by Mara Brock Akil; inspired by the 1975 novel
FAQs
Who is Judy Blume?
Judy Blume (born Judith Sussman, February 12, 1938) is an American author widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in children’s, young adult, and adult literature. She is the author of more than 29 books, including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret., Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Forever, and Wifey, which have sold over 85 million copies worldwide.
How old is Judy Blume?
Judy Blume was born on February 12, 1938, making her 88 years old as of 2026.
Who is Judy Blume’s husband?
Judy Blume’s current husband is George Cooper, a former law professor and non-fiction writer whom she married on June 6, 1987. He is her third husband. Together they co-own and operate Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, a non-profit independent bookstore.
How many times has Judy Blume been married?
Judy Blume has been married three times. First to attorney John M. Blume (1959–1975), then to physicist Thomas A. Kitchens (1976–1978), and currently to non-fiction writer George Cooper (1987–present).
Does Judy Blume have children?
Yes. She has two children from her first marriage: a daughter, Randy Lee Blume (born 1961), who became a therapist with a specialism in helping writers, and a son, Lawrence Andrew Blume (born 1963), who became a filmmaker and director of the 2012 film Tiger Eyes. She is also a grandmother.
Why are Judy Blume’s books banned?
Judy Blume’s books have been banned in schools and libraries across the United States for decades because they address subjects considered controversial by some parents and community groups including puberty, masturbation, teenage sexuality, divorce, bullying, and religious doubt. Forever (1975) is among the most frequently challenged books in the US. The American Library Association has named Blume one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.
What is Judy Blume’s most famous book?
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (1970) is widely considered her most famous and culturally significant book. A groundbreaking novel about a girl navigating puberty, religion, and adolescent identity, it was adapted into a critically acclaimed feature film in 2023.
What is Judy Blume’s net worth?
Judy Blume’s estimated net worth is between $10 million and $25 million, earned through decades of book sales, film and television adaptation rights, speaking engagements, and her bookstore in Key West.
Did Judy Blume have cancer?
Yes. In 2012, Judy Blume was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma (breast cancer) after a routine ultrasound. She underwent a mastectomy and breast reconstruction six weeks later and was declared cancer-free. She had previously had a hysterectomy for cervical cancer.
Where does Judy Blume live?
Judy Blume currently lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband George Cooper. They co-own Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, a beloved non-profit independent bookstore and cultural hub.
Is Judy Blume still writing?
While Judy Blume has stated she no longer writes for publication, she remains deeply active in the literary world operating her bookstore, fighting against book bans, engaging on social media, participating in literary events, and championing the work of other authors.
Conclusion
Judy Blume is, at 88, still standing in the front lines of one of the most important cultural battles of our time the fight for the freedom to read. For more than five decades, she has told the truth about what it means to be young, to be confused, to be curious, to be in love, to be afraid, and to be alive in a world that often tries to pretend these experiences do not exist.
Her books have been taken from shelves, burned in some communities, and officially banned in countless school districts and they keep selling. They keep being read under covers with torches, passed between friends, and discovered anew by each generation that finds in them the same thing every generation before them found: the thrilling, validating, life-changing experience of seeing themselves honestly reflected in a book for the very first time.
That is the measure of Judy Blume’s legacy. Not the 90-plus awards, not the 85 million copies, not the Netflix series or the Sundance documentary though all of these speak powerfully to her impact. The real measure is the girl who picks up Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. for the first time in 2026 and thinks: finally, someone is telling me the truth. As long as that girl exists, Judy Blume matters. And she always will.
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