I Asked Gen Z & Millennial Women Why The Summer I Turned Pretty Has Them In A Chokehold
When Jenny Han wrote The Summer I Turned Pretty, she did it with a youth audience in mind. The series became a staple for tweens and teens around the world who fell in love with Belly Conklin, Cousins Beach and the idea of two gorgeous yet different brothers fawning over them. While the book and the Prime Video series were initially intended for younger audiences, it has found a significant group of dedicated fans in millennials, specifically millennial women.
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Truthfully, it makes sense. The books were written by a millennial woman in the mid-2000s who came of age during the 90s, the golden era of romantic comedies. While the television series remains faithful to the books, it’s certainly been modernised for a 2020s audience.
So, what is it about the television series that resonates with audiences who are well and truly past their teenage years? Is it nostalgia? Is it a yearning for the simple yet significant weight that teenage relationships hold during that time in our lives? Or is it just a really good story which has translated beautifully to screen?
For me personally, a few factors are at play. I think the scripting and character development is super strong and believable. It doesn’t feel like young people cosplaying as adults, the story — and the characters — reminds me of the earth-shattering feelings I had when my teen relationships felt like my whole world.
Plus, as someone who never really had a hot girl metamorphosis until after high school, Belly’s journey on TSITP is almost a vicarious opportunity to live out the “suddenly I’m pretty” Wattpad fantasy.
To find out why other millennials and elder Gen Z people have gravitated towards TSITP, I spoke to a bunch of self-confessed fans to discover what it was that kept them tuning back into Belly (Lola Tung), Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah’s (Gavin Casalegno) love triangle every Wednesday.
The nostalgia and complexity of teenage romance
As a teen, everything is magnified. Emotions are heightened. Relationships feel like your whole world, while breakups feel like the end. As we get older and our frontal lobe develops, we realise that these moments were just blips on our timeline. However, that doesn’t make these feelings any less real or valid — and that’s one of the biggest things Jenny Han takes seriously in the TV adaptation. It’s refreshing and validating to see the deep, devastating reality of teenage emotion play out on screen without an ounce of ridicule.
“I love complex and difficult characters falling in love,” reflects Linley, 27.
“I love the youthful energy that comes with it being about teenagers and young adults, the hopefulness that you’re able to have in YA content, whilst not shying away from more difficult topics like grief or mental illness. I love that it feels nostalgic in those teenage emotions, the depth of the angst and pain we felt. It’s cringe in the way that finding yourself and growing up is cringe.”
For 35-year-old Rachel, the series is a welcome nostalgic throwback to her own teen years.
“As someone who met my husband when I was 17 and went through all the feels, it totally transports me back to that time,” she explained.
“I’m a big fan of the friends-to-romance trope — especially since that’s what I experienced in life — so Belly going through it is super relatable and fun.”
The soundtrack
Every episode of TSITP is soundtracked by some of the world’s biggest artists. From Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, Olivia Rodrigo and SZA, the music adds to the sense of youthful whimsy.
According to Linley, the soundtrack is “banger after banger for the pop girlies”, adding to the allure of watching the show.
For Gen Z super fan, Chetha, 22, the soundtrack acts as a legitimising tool for the fictional world.
“The soundtrack makes you feel like TSITP universe is real,” she explained. “The same songs that I have in my playlists play on screen while you feel all the raw emotion the characters do.”
“I love all Jenny’s Easter eggs and the soundtrack and visual foreshadowing they’ve worked into the series,” Bree, 31, shares.
“It’s clever and feeds the TikTok conversation and intrigue!”
Escapism and the community
For many, the allure of TSITP is the way it lets us turn off our brains and escape into another, much simpler world. After all, who wouldn’t want to cast their mind into the visually pleasing world of Cousins Beach and Finch College?
“I’m on maternity leave right now, so I’m living for TSITP and that side of TikTok,” Bree says.
For Paige, 26, tuning in each week was the perfect escape from the dreary winter weather.
“Especially when it was raining so much in Sydney, living vicariously through Cousins Beach was so fun,” she explains.
Meanwhile, for Rachel, it’s the perfect show to watch after a long day at work: “It’s not super high stakes, so it’s a great wind-down show!”
Plus, the experience of watching TSITP is no longer a solo affair. From group chats to watch parties to girlies gasbagging at brunch, the series has found a very special nook in the zeitgeist that truly unites people.
“It’s the fact that you can message your girls’ group chat every week and psychoanalyse the characters,” Chetha explains. “You love to hate the characters, but you just can’t help but defend them. It’s addictive.”
For Paige, the community is what brought her into the fandom.
“I found the show through my friends because the group chat would be filled with TSITP every week,” she says.
“Now, I love how my group chat is sat on Wednesday night and Thursday we discuss it all day and send our favourite memes”.
But is it just nostalgia from reading the book as a teen?
For many of the people I spoke to, their journey with TSITP started before they were teens, but that wasn’t what made them so obsessed with the current on-screen adaptation.
“I did read the books as a tween, but to be honest was always a bigger fan of Jenny Han’s other series, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. I think that film series coming out really primed me for The Summer I Turned Pretty release. I watched season one the day it came out, so I was onto it immediately,” Linely, 27, explained.
However, other millennial fans took to the book series after the first season.
“I needed to know how it ended,” Bree explained.
“I really enjoyed them for what they were. They were such an easy, brain-smoothing read, and it gives all the characters way more life. You only ever get a small insight when they convert books to TV. I think the way it was written was so accurate for the stages of the characters’ lives and what they’re going through.”
“I read TSITP after reading the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before series, just because it was by Jenny Han as well,” Rachel, 35, said.
“To be honest, I didn’t think much of the books and forgot about them until the series came out.”
To be honest, I think it’s all of the above.
TSITP taps into emotions and life experiences that aren’t reserved for just one age group. We may no longer be in Belly’s position, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and 21, but we can all resonate with the complexities of love, responsibility, grief and jealousy.
After all, those things are timeless.
You can watch The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video.
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