Salon tackles the sanitary belt.

From Salon.com:

Blume discussed the changes candidly in a terrific interview in the Boston Phoenix in 1998, saying, "Some people get really upset about this, but it has nothing to do with the story ... No one uses belts anymore. Half the mothers haven't used them. [Contemporary readers] have to go to their grandmothers." She also told the Phoenix, "I'd been thinking about it for a long time ... Some people said, 'Oh no, it's a classic. You can't mess around with a classic.' And I said, 'Look, we're not messing around with the character... We're just messing around with the equipment."

The Phoenix interview is a must read -- especially for those who still just don't get it about the hero-worship of Judy Blume:

"She was reading a lot of books which were all about pregnancy and terrible things that happen because of sex," Blume says. "And she said, `Couldn't there ever be a book about two kids who do it and nobody has to die?' And I hated the idea of sex and punishment."