It’s easy to imprint hard on the covers of the books you read as a child. And correspondingly, it’s easy to resent the covers of new editions, no matter how high-quality they may be, simply for being new. For example, Scholastic’s new Harry Potter covers are gorgeous, but they are not the ones I grew up on, and hence they are incorrect.

But the most recent cover of Judy Blume’s Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, a 2014 edition, is enough to make even the most partisan of ’80s cover apologists consider buying a new copy.

I've never seen an update to a book's cover executed so perfectly:https://t.co/WD7dtBELpF pic.twitter.com/hh3zAJnmfW — Ryan North (@ryanqnorth) May 8, 2017

It’s a smart, graceful update to the book’s teenage voice, one that preserves Margaret’s search for meaning and identity — through God, through friends, through boobs and periods — while bringing her neatly into today’s universe of smartphones and texting. The Margaret cover is part of an entire line of Judy Blume covers at Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum Books for Young Readers, which prioritize encapsulating Blume’s deathless topics (parental divorce, sex, bullying), while taking them out of the pastel-hued photorealistic covers of the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s and into the color-saturated, boldly graphic world of today’s teen trends.

To find out just how the transformation worked, I spoke to Debbie Ohi, who illustrated the Margaret cover along with three others in the new line, as well as editor Justin Chanda and art director and cover designer Lauren Rille. Our conversation covered the immortal legacy of Judy Blume, changing trends in kid-lit covers, and how the idea of a texting Margaret came to life.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Constance Grady

What’s your relationship with Judy Blume? Did you grow up with her books, or were they new to you?

Debbie Ohi

I’ve been a Judy Blume fangirl as long as I can remember. Her books were a reassurance to my younger, angsty self that I wasn’t alone in having all these bizarre thoughts. I was way too insecure and introverted to talk frankly about some of these taboo topics (at least they were taboo back then) with anyone I knew. Books like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret comforted me and helped me not feel so much like a freak.

Working on the reissued middle grade and chapter books for Atheneum/S&S gave me the excuse to reread old favorites, but I also discovered some new titles I had never read, like Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself and It’s Not the End of the World.

When Justin Chanda, my editor at S&S, invited me to audition to be the illustrator of the reissued books, I immediately said yes even though it meant working through the Christmas holidays and New Year’s. I knew there was no guarantee that Judy would pick me as the illustrator, but even the chance to be rejected by the Judy Blume was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Constance Grady

How do you go about reimagining the cover for books that have been so iconic for so many people? What does that process look like?

Debbie Ohi

The cover revamp process was very much a group effort at Simon & Schuster Children’s. Even before I got involved, there had already been a lot of brainstorming and discussion behind the scenes. Justin wanted me involved on the middle-grade editions because he knew I’d be passionate about them but could also offer S&S a fresh style that hadn’t been on the covers before.

Justin Chanda

Judy was very specific about one thing: These should be books that kids today would pick up. She was not looking for nostalgia, but rather books that middle grade kids today would be drawn to.

Debbie Ohi

Justin encouraged me to also feel free to come up with my own ideas. Throughout the Christmas holidays, including New Year’s Day, he and I exchanged many emails. I would send him sketch ideas and he’d give me feedback on what was working and what wasn’t, and I’d send him more. Because the books were coming out in April and they had not yet found the right illustrator (I wasn’t the first illustrator they approached), timing was super-tight. I panicked when an ice storm in Toronto shut down our power for a few days, but a friend offered to let me work in her apartment and my husband moved all my equipment over so I could keep sketching. I owe them big time!

When everyone else at S&S got back after the holidays, I continued the brainstorming and sketching process with Justin, Dan Potash, Namrata Tripathi, and Lauren Rille.

When Justin called to let me know that I had the job, he only got a few words in before I started screaming. I don’t remember that conversation too well except that at one point, Justin said, “Yes, this is really happening.” S&S also asked if I would do the interior illustrations for three Judy Blume chapter book versions: Freckle Juice, The Pain and the Great One, and The One In The Middle Is the Green Kangaroo.

Once I was told I had the job, the real work began. Some of the cover sketches I sent in, like for Blubber and Deenie, came together pretty easily. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was the biggest challenge.

I worked 12-14 hours a day during that time. [Art director Lauren Rille] and I were joking during the process that if we turned our keyboards upside-down, crumbs would fall out because of all the meals we ate while sitting at our desks. Any time my energy started flagging, though, I’d think “OMG, I’M ILLUSTRATING JUDY BLUME BOOKS” and pow, I’d be back.

Lauren Rille

As an avid reader of her books when I was young, I pretty much had to forget everything I knew and held dear about the books I had as a kid, and try to approach these as “just another book we are making a cover for” — which is pretty much impossible! But truly, trying to separate my childhood love for the books from designing for today’s market was the trick with these. I think the graphic approach came to us relatively early in the process, but refining that, as you know, Debbie, was a challenge.

Debbie Ohi

Later that year, I was thrilled to meet Judy Blume in person. I had vowed to myself that I wouldn’t be too fan-girly, but of course when I finally met her, I burst into tears. So embarrassing. But Judy was so gracious and easygoing, so down-to-earth. Later, I was told that my reaction is pretty common for women my age who grew up with Judy’s books.

Constance Grady

Specifically for Margaret, how did the text chat log concept evolve?

Debbie Ohi

We went through many, many iterations of the Margaret cover. The team at Simon & Schuster Children’s did a lot of brainstorming and I also did some with Justin via many sketches and emailing. We kept coming back to a bra image and a locket image, but none of it really felt right.

Justin Chanda

I think it was Judy who said in an email at one point, “Margaret is more than a bra!”

The text idea was just one of those moments. It was quick, all of a sudden. We were thinking that this was the most iconic book for kids this age, so what is the most iconic thing we can think of? Texting emerged. It’s funny, of course, because there are no cell phones in the book, but Judy has also said that if it was written today, Margaret would be a texter!

We then asked “What should she text?” and it was simple: The title.

Constance Grady

This whole line of covers is very figurative and symbolic and minimalist, whereas when I was growing up all of my Judy Blume covers were just illustrations of sad girls in their bedrooms. Do you see that shift as part of a wider trend in YA book covers, or was it a choice that was specific to this line of editions?

Justin Chanda

I think iconic, spare, brightly colored covers are working well in the middle grade market. Look at the series by Stu Gibbs for a solid example. But the idea was not only be true to the market, but true to the books. To have icons that really summed up the story and the feeling of the books themselves.