This universal aspect of Blume’s storytelling is what appealed to television mogul Mara Brock Akil when she was 12 and read “Forever” for the first time.

I n 1975, Judy Blume released Forever, a YA novel about a young woman falling in love for the first time and losing her virginity. Almost immediately, it was deemed controversial by those who believed it was too sexually explicit for young readers, with some states going so far as to ban the book from schools.

For 50 years, Judy Blume's Forever... has served as a rite of passage for young readers everywhere thanks to its honest, stigma-less approach to mature subject matters like sex and birth control. Now this long-celebrated tale of first love comes to the screen in Netflix's Forever, created by Mara Brock Akil ( Girlfriends ).