Deenie

First published in 1973, Judy Blume’s middle grade novel Deenie follows seventh-grader Deenie Fenner’s journey toward self-acceptance after she is diagnosed with scoliosis. American author Judy Blume is best known for her fiction for children and young adults. She has written over 26 novels in her decades-long career, and her work has earned critical success and enduring popularity, including titles like Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Summer Sisters. Blume has won over 90 literary awards and was inducted into the Library of Congress’s Living Legends in 2000 for her major contribution to American literature.

In the eponymous novel Deenie, the protagonist’s life is upended when she is diagnosed with scoliosis and starts wearing a back brace. Over the course of the story, Deenie learns to challenge her relationship to beauty standards and self-image while exploring her relationships with her family and friends. Through realistic fiction, Blume explores typical teenage struggles, such as parental expectations, friendships, and romantic interests, as well as societal issues like ableism and peer pressure. The novel tackles themes of Disability as a Catalyst for Self-Acceptance, Empathy as a Tool to Challenge Ableism, and The Negative Impact of Parental Ambition on Self-Identity.

This guide refers to the 2014 Kindle edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of ableism, bullying, emotional abuse, mental illness, suicidal ideation, and sexual content.

Language Note: The source text uses offensive terms to refer to mental illness and people with disabilities. This study guide reproduces this language only in quotations.

Plot Summary

Deenie is in seventh grade and lives a fairly typical life. She lives with her parents and her sister, has two best friends named Midge and Janet, and a crush on a boy named Buddy. At the beginning of the story, Deenie is on her way to a modeling agency with her mother Thelma. Thelma puts a lot of pressure on her older daughter, Helen, to become an intellectual, while she pushes Deenie to become a model. Deenie goes along with her mother’s plan but secretly wonders whether she truly wants to model. At the agency, the casting agent notices that Deenie’s posture appears off, despite Deenie’s attempts to practice walking straight, leading Thelma to believe that her daughter is not trying hard enough.

Against her mother’s wishes, Deenie later tries out for the cheerleading squad with Janet. Janet is picked for the team, but Mrs. Rappoport, the gym teacher, does not select Deenie. After gym class, Mrs. Rappoport takes Deenie aside to let her know that she also noticed something strange about Deenie’s posture. When Deenie’s parents have her checked out by their family doctor on Mrs. Rappoport’s recommendation, he sends them to an orthopedist named Dr. Kliner. After examining Deenie thoroughly, the latter concludes that she has scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that is often detected during adolescence.

Thelma is distraught by the news because she believes that Deenie will not be able to model. Deenie, who is annoyed by her mother’s emotional outburst, is also scared of the social stigma often attached to physical disabilities. When Dr. Kliner explains that possible treatments include wearing a back brace or having corrective surgery, Deenie immediately decides that she will never wear a brace.

At home, Deenie is stressed and decides to touch her “special place” to fall asleep. She later learns in health class that it is called masturbation and starts wondering about sexual intercourse. Deenie tells Midge and Janet about her newly diagnosed condition and what she assumes to be her upcoming surgery. Her friends are immediately supportive and even take her on a surprise shopping trip to buy her a nightgown for the hospital.

However, at their next appointment, Dr. Kliner instead tells Deenie that she will have to wear a medical contraption named a Milwaukee brace for four years. Although she is very upset by this turn of events, Deenie is taken to another specialist to take a mold of her torso. When she is finally shown her new brace a few weeks later, Deenie is horrified at the thought of being seen wearing it. She impulsively cuts off her hair and refuses to wear a protective undershirt underneath the brace, which causes her to develop a skin irritation.

Once she starts wearing the brace at school, Deenie is very self-conscious. She does not want to be associated with the other students with disabilities, even refusing the vice-principal’s offer to ride the “special bus” to school. However, Deenie opens up to Barbara, a girl with a skin condition, and realizes that, despite her initial assumptions, Barbara is very nice and friendly. The young girl is also elated when Buddy starts getting interested in her; although he is curious, he does not seem to mind her brace.

Deenie attends a school mixer with Midge, Janet, and Barbara. Still self-conscious about the brace, she refuses to dance and starts feeling isolated. However, Buddy kisses her for the first time.

Deenie’s relationship with her sister Helen also improves when she overhears Helen arguing with Thelma. Deenie’s sister berates their mother for putting so much pressure on her daughters, arguing that they want to be more than “the beauty” and “the brains.” Deenie initially believes that Helen resents her due to her costly medical bills, but Helen assures her that Deenie is not to blame for her condition.

At the end of the story, Janet throws a party, and Deenie assumes that her parents will let her go without her brace. However, her father insists that she wear it. Upset, Deenie decides to take it off as soon as her parents drop her off at Janet’s, but once there, she feels guilty for betraying her father’s trust. Instead, she enjoys the party with her friends and makes out with Buddy, all the while wearing her brace.