Blume said that she felt a connection with the character Margaret, which allowed the story to come "pouring out." Blume wrote that while the story was not autobiographical, "the character of Margaret, both physically and emotionally, is pretty close to the girl I was."[6] Growing up, Blume said while her family was very different from the one portrayed in the book, she felt that, "like Margaret, I had a very personal relationship with God that had little to do with organized religion."[7][8]
Blume made a post-publication edit to subsequent editions of the book to reflect changing menstrual products.[9]
