Miranda July was 45 when she realized that she knew little about what was happening—and what was about to happen—to her body. As a child of the 1980s, she certainly felt warned about the contours of puberty and menstruation by Judy Blume and others. But as she reached middle age, where were all the books and movies about what happens next, when those monthly periods slow and then stop? “I kind of couldn’t believe the void when I got there,” July says in an interview.