few questions about Alice

Hello. I’m 15 years old and I’ve read all the Alice books and I’m in love with them! I have a few questions about the Alice books. I remember in one of the books, Pamela gets pregnant & has a miscarriage, did you ever think about making Pamela have the baby & show the struggles of being a teen mother? It’s unfortunately sometimes the case for some teens. Also, did you ever think about making Alice pregnant as a teen? or at least a pregnancy scare? My final question is, Were you scared to bring up certain topics in the Alice books and afraid some girls would take it the wrong way? or that parents would get upset with you talking about these topics?

I was never afraid because I knew I was  writing true-to-life stories, and because I had a good editor and publisher, and countless librarians, whom I knew would stand up for me and for your right to read.  I did hear occasionally from parents who thought that ten years old was too young for children to know how babies were conceived (Lovingly Alice)  and others shocked at the intimacy of Alice and Patrick when she visited him at the University of Chicago.  In fact, angry letters  that Alice thought about sex at all.  Some told me that “…my daughter never thought about sex until she read your Alice books…” but I got far more letters from girls saying things like “I could never ask my mother things like that.  She has no idea how much I think about sex.”  No, I never planned for Alice to have a scare with pregnancy, but I knew Pamela would.  Of course I know that many teenagers get pregnant–Teen Mom–but to show her having to cope with a baby would extend my series on beyond the 28 books I had planned.   Over the years I got many, many letters, suggesting things I should have happen to Alice:  make her a diabetic, make her try drugs, let her marry Sam, etc.  and I simply had to carve out the life I saw for her myself.