SAN JOSE, CALIF. — On June 17, 2022, Season 1 of the popular American coming-of-age romantic drama “The Summer I Turned Pretty” created by Jenny Han was released to stream on Amazon Prime Video for all subscribers to watch. Shortly following its release, the television series quickly became the No. 1 show streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

The storyline of the show introduces the main characters Isabel “Belly” Conklin, brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, Cam, Belly’s brother Steven, and the two mothers Laurel and Susannah. The story takes place in the summer house in Cousins’ Beach, a place Belly has been going to ever since she was born. The older Fisher brother, Conrad, has been Conklin’s first love ever since she was 10-years-old, and the younger Fisher, Jeremiah, had always been Conklin’s best friend. 

During the summer of Belly’s sixteenth birthday, everything changed. She hits it off with a boy named Cam that she had actually met many years ago. And Jeremiah finally confesses his feelings to Belly. Conrad is also unusually different this summer, but at times still shows special attention to Belly. The show showcases Belly’s internal conflicts as she tries to decide which boy she wants to be with. Her childhood best friend? Her first love? Or a long acquainted friend from the past?

The show “The Summer I Turned Pretty” was originally a book trilogy and was turned into a television adaptation in 2022. However, there are many differences between the books and the show. One of the main differences being that there are many crucial scenes that have been added to the show that can affect the whole flow of the story. Such as which boy she chooses over the course of the show and how the mother of the Fisher brothers chooses to reveal her secret. The show also digs deeper into Belly’s mother, Laurel, and the Fisher mother, Susannah’s friendship. In the books, it only showed Belly’s perspective, readers were only able to see what happened in her own life. In the show, the creators are able to dig deeper into the other characters and the conflicts that are going on in their lives. Although there are some very noticable differences between the books and the show, the main storyline and conflict still remains. “I think that the show was very entertaining, it had many elements from the book but still had its own storyline” says a freshman at Silver Creek Highschool.

Aside from writing “The Summer I Turned Pretty” trilogy, the author Han also wrote the popular teenage romance books “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” which was also turned into a film adaptation in 2018 with 2 sequels streaming on Netflix. Both stories written by the author are very similar. They both emphasize the teenage perspective in life, and how the characters mature and handle certain situations. Just like “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, the story “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” also includes a love triangle between the female lead and her two love interests. Many of the characters are very similar to each other, but also very different in their own way in how they impact the story. But the most important similarity between the two shows is the theme of self discovery and going on their own journey as they mature as an individual. 

Following the successful release of “The Summer I Turned Pretty”, the show has now been confirmed for Season 2 of the Series by Amazon Prime Video. The show is expected to be dropped by the summer of 2023.