Some books are like a fine wine - they only get better with age. I recently re-read the Judy Blume classic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and I would have to claim this book as one which only gets better as one gets older.

…Margaret is about 11-year-old Margaret Simon and her 6th grade year. It’s a big year of new changes for Margaret: her family moves from New York to a New Jersey suburb, Margaret has her first big crush, has a male teacher for the first time, gets her first bra, and her first kiss. And all of this while navigating the changing relationships in her life - from new friends to the way she views both her parents and her grandmother. Though she is not being raised in any one religion, Margaret often speaks to God, asking the big questions, and asking for help where she thinks she most needs it.

When I was in middle school, it was easy to identify with Margaret, as Blume writes her with such everyday honesty. What girl can’t identify with the embarrassment of shopping for a bra for the first time? And what girl doesn’t wonder with anxiety just when will she really begin to blossom, and what it will be like when it happens?

But what I discovered this time around is that even as an adult, so many of Margaret’s anxieties are still relateable, although maybe in a slightly different guise. I know so many women who still fret about the size of their chest and dread buying bras. So many of my peers and I still wonder about the men we are interested in - do they like us, too? - or harbor secret silly crushes, lest our friends judge us. (Yes, all you ladies crushing on today’s latest teen stars, I’m lookin’ at you!) And who doesn’t ask for a little supernatural help from time to time?

I think what it really comes down to is that adolescence is really just a prelude for what is to come. It’s the beginning of the adult half of your life, and while some things settle down (like your hormones!), life will never be as easy or simple as it was as a child. A part of each of us will always be an awkward middle-schooler at heart, questioning, wondering, and hoping for one thing or another. A part of each of us will always be a little like Margaret, deep down inside.