7 Fun Things We Recently Learned About Lena Dunham And Judy Blume

Two cultural icons on sex, making up book reports, Lolita, and lightning.

Ross Simonini

The Believer magazine recently arranged for legendary author Judy Blume (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; Blubber; Deenie) and Girls creator Lena Dunham to interview one another for the magazine's January issue, but the conversation was so lively (and long) that the folks behind The Believer decided to transform it into a mini-book. Judy Blume and Lena Dunham in Conversation is only available as a free bonus for new and returning Believer subscribers (you can order it here), but we got an exclusive early peek. Here are seven (out of many) of the fun things we learned about these two incredible writers:

1. Judy Blume has a fear of lightning.

makok/makok

"For today it’s severe thunderstorms possible until five o’ clock with a chance of a tornado. And I’m thinking, OK, I’m going to be sitting with Lena, so what we’ll do is, we’ll just go into the closet together—"

2. Lena Dunham wrote Quentin Tarantino-esque stories as a child.

Via miramax.com

"It was all families who gave up their daughter for adoption, then she became a pauper, then she came back to kill them all. It was all so heavy, so deeply heavy, and I called them all novels no matter how short they were."

3. Judy Blume eats the same breakfast every day.

Via amazon.com

"Barbara’s Original high fiber, with a sliced banana and blueberries—carefully washed blueberries—and skim milk and then maybe a piece of toast or a half a piece of toast and a cup of tea."

4. Lena Dunham read Lolita as a 9-year-old

Via knopfdoubleday.com

"I had no clue what anybody was talking about."

5. Judy Blume made up books to write book reports about as a kid.

Kyslynskyy/Kyslynskyy

"It was about a horse named Dobbin, yes. I made up the characters and the theme and I stood up in front of the class and I gave my report."

6. Lena Dunham had some funny ideas about sex as a kid.

monkeybusinessimages/monkeybusinessimages

"Like, I thought babies were made because a guy and a girl put their arms together and the sperm and egg met through the pores of their skin, and I remember telling that to my mom and she was like, “It doesn’t not make sense."

7. Judy Blume isn’t sure why everyone gives Miley Cyrus such a hard time.

Steve Marcus / Reuters

"Because she twerked, right? What is twerking? What we used to call humping?"

To read Lena Dunham and Judy Blume's entire conversation, click here.

Via Instagram: @mcsweeneyspublishing