The Summer I Turned Pretty: A Teenage TV Series Exploring Real-Life Problems

Over the past couple of weeks, the TV series The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP), based on the novel by Jenny Han, has completely blown up on social media. If you’re a teenage girl, you’ve probably already seen the series at least once (or several times like me). So, I want to talk about why we teenage girls love it as much as we do, as well as what Entertainment Values it represents.

Why The Summer I Turned Pretty Is A Perfect Teenage, Summer TV Series

The series follows Belly, a 16-year-old girl who stays with her mom and her brother, Stephen, at her mom’s best friend Susanna’s beach house every summer with Susanna’s two sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. TSITP is a perfect storm of a series (particularly for teenage girls!), and let me tell you a few reasons why.

TSITP has a beautiful summer and beach aesthetic. The series is set at Cousin’s Beach, where the two main families live in a nice beach house. The teens spend time at the local country club and surfing and hanging out at the beach and pool. It’s a perfect series to binge during the summer and immerse yourself into the Cousin’s Beach world. 

A majority of the viral TikTok videos about TSITP center around admiring the attractiveness of the cast. I believe that the reason why viewers love this cast so much, though, isn’t just because of their good looks, but because they actually look like 17-year-olds. Oftentimes, series and movies cast people that don’t look like teenagers to play teenagers (see series such as Outer Banks). Because most of the TSITP cast actually pass as teenagers, it makes the story feel more real.

The last thing I have to add is about the soundtrack. I’ve never been so obsessed with a soundtrack, and many people online feel the same. From Taylor Swift to Billie Eilish to Tyler, the Creator, TSITP has all the trendy songs set to fitting scenes.

How The Summer I Turned Pretty Explores Unimportant and Important Problems

The plot of The Summer I Turned Pretty is a mix of unimportant and important problems, and both types normalize all the difficult feelings and situations that come with growing up. 

If you are a teen and talked to your parents or other adults about the TSITP, you are probably met with a response like, “that sounds like a dumb story”. I’ve read this in reviews of the series, with writers talking about how unrealistic it is that this girl suddenly has every hot boy pining for her. In a way, they're right. The main plot of the series is that Belly literally can’t choose between Conrad, Jeremiah, and even a new guy named Cam. And even though this seems like an unimportant problem, it doesn’t feel that way to her, and it doesn’t feel that way when teenagers experience somewhat similar problems around boys, friends, and popularity. Adolescence is a time where every little event feels like a life-changing event and every relationship feels like the end all be all, and those feelings are what TSITP represents. TSITP reveals that even though it’s okay to get caught up in things like boys and drama, there are bigger problems that should often take priority.

To build on that, TSITP deals with equally relatable but far more serious and “important” problems. For instance, the whole summer, Susanna is keeping her terminal cancer a secret from the kids. Conrad actually knows about her cancer (unbeknownst to anyone else) and even has a panic attack due to stress. Belly and Stephen’s parents were recently divorced, and they have to deal with both of their parent's new significant others. Conrad also experiences conflict due to intense pressure from his Dad. These are just a few of the real and important problems that TSITP explores.

So, The Summer I Turned Pretty is a perfect summer series with a great cast and a great soundtrack. In addition to that, TSITP normalizes silly teenage problems, while also contrasting these with bigger, life-changing problems. That’s really what the teenage experience is all about: half dealing with teenage drama and romance for the first time, and half getting a glimpse into real, adult problems. TSITP represents this experience wonderfully, and that’s why the series has already connected with so many teens.

Written by Peyton Price - Entertainment Values