[2] Severance came out as a lesbian and moved to Denver to study early childhood education in college; she finished school after a decade and was teaching preschool by the late 1970s.

[5] She also noted a contemporary trend of children's books dealing with divorce and decided to "kill two birds with one stone" in writing When Megan Went Away, addressing lesbian motherhood and parental separation.

[5] Severance submitted her manuscript to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina–based independent press Lollipop Power, whose address she found listed on the back of their books.

[6] Lollipop Power also suggested that she change the names "Shannon" and "Megan", lest readers get the impression that "only women with Irish heritage were lesbians".

[12][13] Despite Severance's text appearing in Ms., Lesléa Newman, a fellow LGBT children's author, said that Lollipop Power did not do enough publicity for the book, limiting its potential readership.

Lenore Gordon praised the story in the Interracial Books for Children Bulletin in 1980, writing that its strength lies "both in [Severance's] gentle storytelling voice and her use of detail".

[17] She described the work as "one that will help the child of a lesbian feel less alone", praising the decorations in Schook's art as "Early American Dyke".

[17] Gordon described Schook's illustrations as having "a pleasurable child-quality" to them, which she found to be tonally inconsistent with Severance's somber text.

[20] While praising its attempts to depict an anti-sexist family, Gordon criticized When Megan Went Away for presenting "an uncommonly liberated lesbian lifestyle", which she viewed as minimizing the relevance of the book to a wider array of readers.

[16] Although the depiction of a same-sex parented household satisfied some readers, others were concerned that the first story published about the topic revolved around a broken relationship.

"[28][29] As of 2022, When Megan Went Away remained just one of two documented children's picture books featuring LGBT characters to depict divorce or separation.

[b][30] When Megan Went Away is sometimes forgotten as the first picture book to feature lesbian characters, a distinction instead given to Lesléa Newman's Heather Has Two Mommies (1989).

[6] Both Severance and Newman, who are personally acquainted, agreed that intangible factors like timing and luck likely contributed to the relative popularity of Heather.

[7] The book's availability is primarily limited to library special collections and archives, and when secondary sales of the work do occur online, copies may be listed for over 40 times the original retail price of $1.85.