From Gen Z to Millennials: Why audiences can't get enough of this summer romance streaming hit
Yet, the show has been nothing short of a global phenomenon. Now in its third and final season, it's Amazon Prime Video's most-watched TV show globally among women in the 18-to-35 age group.
Its appeal is simple, says Jenny Han, who wrote the books on which the series is based and is creator of the TV series. 'It's aspirational,' she says. 'I think partly why people connect to it, too, is that many people have had a romance at the beach or felt strong feelings for somebody who maybe didn't return them and those things to me are across generations and time.'
Han is in Sydney with two of the show's lead actors, Lola Tung (Isabel) and Rain Spencer (Taylor), as part of the streamer's Prime Book Club Live event, which is celebrating the success of several of the streamer's book-to-TV adaptations. The series follows Tung's Isabel (or 'Belly', as she is affectionately referred to), a young woman caught in a love triangle with brothers Conrad and Jeremiah.
Largely set against the pastel-hued backdrop of the boys' family's beach house, and scored heavily by hits from Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, it's a different breed of teen media to the more explicit portrayals of sex in shows such as Euphoria and Sex Education, which are heavy with grit and teen angst.
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While The Summer I Turned Pretty is hardly short on drama, its take on adolescence is decidedly more saccharine.
'Fantasy is such a big part of reality now,' says Tung. 'Thinking about having a crush is fantasy, you know?'
Han, a former children's librarian, wrote The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy between 2009 and 2011. Over a decade later, it was picked up by Amazon and the series quickly became a hit, particularly among Gen Z and Millennial women.
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