Judy Blume was born on February 12, 1936 to Rudolph and Esther Sussman. She was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Blume graduated with honors from her high school, Battin, and went on to Boston University. She was forced to quit college after a year because of a disease that caused her to have too many large white blood cells. She then transferred to New York University where she graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science in early childhood education. She then had two children, Randy Lee and Lawrence Andrew. Many of her books are about the challenge pre-teens face when growing up in middle-class America.