It’s the smell of salt air. It’s the sound of a Taylor Swift bridge swelling in the background while two teenagers stare at each other with way too much tension. If you’ve spent any time on the internet over the last few years, you’ve felt the gravitational pull of The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Jenny Han basically cracked the code.
She took the "coming-of-age" blueprint and infused it with enough nostalgia and yearning to make grown adults weep over a fictional love triangle. It’s not just a show about a girl getting pretty and suddenly being noticed by two brothers. Honestly, that’s the surface-level take. The real magic of the series—both the books and the Prime Video adaptation—lies in how it captures that specific, fleeting feeling of being fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen, where every single summer feels like it could change the entire trajectory of your life.
The Belly Conklin Evolution
Belly is messy.
Let's just be real about that for a second. Isabel "Belly" Conklin isn't your perfect, poised protagonist. She’s impulsive. She makes mistakes that make you want to reach through the screen and give her a gentle shake. But that’s exactly why people care so much. In the first season, we see her transition from the "little sister" figure into someone who is finally stepping into her own skin.
It’s a universal experience. You know that moment where you realize you’re not a kid anymore? That’s Belly’s entire arc.
Jenny Han, who also gave us To All the Boys I've Loved Before, understands that teenage girls aren't just thinking about boys. They’re thinking about their mothers. They’re thinking about their best friends. They’re mourning the loss of childhood while desperately trying to sprint toward adulthood. Lola Tung plays Belly with this incredible vulnerability that makes the "Team Conrad" vs. "Team Jeremiah" debate feel like a high-stakes geopolitical conflict.
Why the Fisher Brothers Divide the Internet
If you haven't picked a side, do you even watch the show?
The central conflict of The Summer I Turned Pretty is the tug-of-war between Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. It’s the classic literary trope: the brooding, mysterious older brother versus the golden-boy, reliable younger brother.
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Conrad is... a lot.
Christopher Briney plays him with such a heavy internal world. He’s the guy who pushes you away because he thinks he’s protecting you, which, as we all know, is the most frustrating thing a person can do. Then you have Jeremiah. Gavin Casalegno brings this sunshine energy to Jere, but as the seasons progress, we see that his "easygoing" nature is often a mask for his own insecurities and the pressure of being the "stable" one while his family falls apart.
Critics often point out that the show handles grief with surprising depth for a YA drama. Susannah Fisher’s illness is the ticking clock beneath all the romance. It’s the reason Conrad is acting out. It’s the reason the house at Cousins Beach feels so sacred. You aren't just watching a love story; you're watching a family try to hold onto a beautiful version of themselves before everything changes forever.
The "Taylor Swift Effect" and Modern Romance
You can't talk about this show without talking about the music.
The soundtrack is basically a Taylor Swift greatest hits album. From "The Way I Loved You" to "August," the music does the heavy lifting for the emotional beats. It’s a genius marketing move, sure, but it also reflects how Gen Z and Millennials consume stories. We associate specific songs with specific heartbreaks.
But there’s a nuance here that some people miss. The Summer I Turned Pretty leans into the "female gaze" incredibly hard.
It isn't about how the boys see Belly; it’s about how Belly feels when they look at her. It’s about the small touches, the shared glances over a bonfire, and the internal monologue of a girl who has been in love with the idea of someone since she was ten years old. This isn't just "guilty pleasure" TV. It's a calculated, deeply empathetic look at female adolescence.
What the TV Show Changed (And Why It Matters)
Purists will always scream about the books.
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In the original trilogy by Jenny Han—The Summer I Turned Pretty, It’s Not Summer Without You, and We’ll Always Have Summer—the pacing is a bit different. The show, however, has made some pretty significant updates to keep it relevant for 2024 and beyond.
- Increased Diversity: The show cast Lola Tung, who is of Chinese and European descent, bringing a much-needed layer of cultural identity to Belly’s character that wasn’t as central in the books.
- Jeremiah’s Sexuality: Making Jeremiah queer in the show was a major shift. It added layers to his character and reflected a more modern reality of fluid identity.
- The Debutante Ball: This was a huge addition for Season 1. It gave the story a visual "milestone" and allowed for those big, sweeping ballroom moments that social media loves.
- The Moms' Friendship: Laurel and Susannah get way more screen time. Their friendship is arguably the most stable and beautiful "love story" in the entire series.
Honestly, the show is one of those rare cases where the adaptation might actually be better than the source material because it fleshes out the side characters. Taylor (Belly’s best friend) goes from being a somewhat two-dimensional "mean girl" archetype in the books to a ride-or-die, complex friend in the series.
The Cultural Longevity of Cousins Beach
Why are we still talking about this?
It’s because of the aesthetic. "Cousins Beach" isn't a real place (it’s filmed mostly in Wilmington, North Carolina), but it represents a "state of mind." It’s that dream of a coastal summer where the only thing that matters is which swimsuit you’re wearing and who’s picking the music for the drive to the beach.
In a world that feels increasingly chaotic, The Summer I Turned Pretty offers a specific kind of escapism. It’s not fantasy with dragons, but it is a fantasy of a certain kind of American youth. It’s the "Clean Girl" aesthetic mixed with "Coastal Grandmother" vibes, but for the younger crowd.
Dealing with the Backlash
It’s not all sunshine and seashells.
Some viewers find Belly’s indecisiveness exhausting. There is a very real conversation to be had about the "toxic" traits of both Conrad and Jeremiah. Is Conrad actually deep, or is he just communicative-ly challenged? Is Jeremiah actually "nice," or is he manipulative when he doesn't get what he wants?
The show doesn’t shy away from these questions. In Season 2, we see the characters at their absolute worst. They are grieving, they are angry, and they hurt each other. That’s what makes it "human quality" writing. It’s not a sanitized version of love. It’s the messy, jagged version where people say things they can't take back.
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Real-World Impact: The "BookTok" Boom
Jenny Han’s books saw a massive resurgence in sales because of the show.
According to various publishing reports, the trilogy spent weeks back on the New York Times bestseller list years after its initial release. This is the power of the "BookTok" ecosystem. Fans create edits, analyze every frame for "Easter eggs" (like the infinity scarf or the polaroid photos), and build communities around their "teams."
It has also turned the lead actors into massive stars. Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno went from relatively unknown actors to household names with millions of followers overnight. Their chemistry is the engine that keeps the show running, and it’s why the hiatus between seasons feels so agonizing for the fanbase.
The Road to Season 3
We know it’s coming.
The third season is set to follow the third book, We’ll Always Have Summer. Without spoiling too much for those who haven't read ahead, things get even more complicated. Time jumps. Big life decisions. Possible weddings.
But the core remains the same: Belly Conklin trying to figure out if you can ever really go back to the way things were, or if "turning pretty" was just the beginning of a much harder journey toward becoming a woman.
If you're looking to dive deeper into the world of Cousins Beach, there are a few things you can do right now to get the full experience:
- Watch the "Belly’s Playlist" on Spotify: These are curated by Jenny Han herself and give a huge insight into the "vibe" of the characters.
- Read the Books (After the Show): It’s worth seeing where the story started, even if you prefer the TV version. The internal monologues in the books are much more detailed.
- Look for the Wilmington Filming Locations: If you’re ever in North Carolina, places like Wrightsville Beach and the Wilmington Riverwalk are the real-life stand-ins for the show’s most iconic scenes.
- Analyze the Color Palette: Notice how Conrad is often associated with blue and cool tones, while Jeremiah is linked to gold and warmth. It’s a classic visual storytelling trick that the show uses perfectly.
The staying power of The Summer I Turned Pretty isn't an accident. It’s a masterclass in nostalgia, targeted perfectly at an audience that wants to feel something big, even if it's just for a few episodes every summer. It reminds us that no matter how old we get, there's a part of us that's still waiting by the pool for the person we love to finally look our way.