Of all of the content I consumed this summer, nothing stayed with me quite like The Summer I Turned Pretty. When the final season of Amazon Prime’s cheesy, young adult series came to a dramatic end last week, I found myself facing many, many more feelings than I had anticipated. I spent my very mundane summer enveloped by the show — watching it, talking about it, thinking about it, and watching it over again. I never imagined I’d be reflecting on the lessons of a teen romance series, and yet, here I am.
The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP), based on Jenny Han’s novels, is nothing we haven’t seen before — a hasty engagement, a cheating boyfriend, a picturesque summerhouse. At its core is Isabel (Belly) Conklin’s coming-of-age story — once the nerdy younger sister, now caught in a tumultuous love triangle with brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. Across three seasons, the series explores young adulthood (though very different from mine) and Belly’s pull between Conrad, Jeremiah, and at times, herself. Highlights include Jeremiah cheating then proposing, Conrad confessing his love the day before the wedding, Belly calling it off and moving to Paris, Conrad following her, and Belly finally accepting he’s the love of her life (whiplash much?).
Explaining the lore of the show to someone unfamiliar often falls flat. After all, it took me three tries to even finish the first episode. For every moment of raw emotion and poetic dialogue, there is a cringe-worthy, look-away-from-the-screen-and-fast-forward moment that would turn most people off. It’s as much about the journey as the outcome. But, once you’re in, you’re in—and according to Amazon Prime, 25 million people were in for the final season.
Despite even its worst moments, I anticipated the release of each week’s new episode, and equally have missed it now that it’s over. Amidst the Taylor Swift soundtrack and painful dance scenes, I found a pocket of meaningful lessons from the show, and from the community it created.
So, here are a few lessons I’ve learned from The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Everyone Needs Something (Or Someone) to Route For
The community around TSITP is both loyal and loud. Whether fans were Team Jeremiah or Team Conrad, they showed up — watching edits, debating plot lines, laughing, crying, and cringing together week after week. Watching the show in many ways mimicked a team sport, as fans gathered in pursuit of a common goal. I realized that maybe it wasn’t about the show itself — maybe it was the same reason my family unconditionally supports the Toronto Maple Leafs and Taylor Swift continues to fill stadiums: we find something we love, we find other people who love it, and we stick together. Simple, almost primal. And yet, it was the most connected I’d felt in years. The show reminded me that opportunities to connect are still abundant and that the world is filled with people living wildly different, yet awfully similar lives to our own. Everyone needs something to route for, and it’s much easier to do so when you’re not routing alone.
Sometimes We Simply Need A Happy Ending
I’m not usually one for a cheesy teenage romance, yet I found myself attached to this show and its characters as if they were my own friends. I dropped my head into my hands when Belly forgave Jer’s cheating, and I shed a tear when Conrad kissed her forehead goodbye on her wedding day. As the final episodes dwindled, I realized I was longing for a happy ending. And when Belly and Conrad finally got theirs, it felt like I did too. Watching the show taught me that sometimes, in a world as heavy as ours, you simply do need a happy ending — and that’s okay. Finding the treasure, unmasking the villain, or living happily every after, offer resolve, comfort, and a sense of closure that reality doesn’t always give us. Stories like TSITP remind us that it’s okay — even necessary — to crave joy, resolution, and hope that it works out in the end.
A “Man Written by a Women” Can Exist In The Real World
In the final season, Conrad is painted as “a man written by a woman.” In his small, vintage watch and button up shirts, he cooks for Belly, confesses his love on her wedding day, and follows her to Paris to confess his unchanged love, again. Fans swooned and chanted at their TVs, convinced someone like him couldn’t exist off-screen — someone so thoughtful, so respectful, so brooding yet vulnerable. But, I’ve come to realize that Conrad isn’t extraordinary or impossible, he’s simply a good guy. He’s caring and thoughtful, not a superhero. Conrads do exist, and maybe it’s up to us to find them. If we assume that good men can only be fictional, on-screen, and written by women, I think our chances of meeting them in the real world are slim to none.
The Effects of Social Media are a Symptom of Our Choices
In many ways, my favourite part of TSITP was everything that followed the weekly episodes. The conversations, the laughs, the Tik Tok edits that only a viewer could understand (namely Jeremiah vs. chocolate cake). It made me appreciate the part of social media that I thought to be long gone; a world of innocent, funny content that didn’t stir my insides and make me feel undoubtedly worse afterwards. It became a refreshing escape and (in true algorithmic fashion) the more I watched, the more I was exposed to. For the first time in years, my discovery pages were filled with truly harmless content. No “What I Eat In A Day”’s or morning routines. Turns out, we do have some agency in the media we consume, and it’s up to us to use it. Social media can be a positive thing in our lives, if we choose for it to be.
Belly May Have Chosen Conrad, But She Still Chose Herself
Like many TV heroines before her (think Carrie Bradshaw or Rachel Green), Belly faced a choice between Paris and the man she loved. Fans were terrified by her decision to go — the fear being that she would forgo both brothers and end up choosing herself. Somehow, that felt like the worst-case scenario. I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes as she effortlessly acclimated to her new home, wishing she was with Conrad instead. But in Paris, Belly learned her worth and returned ready for a love that met her halfway. In the end, she chose Conrad only after choosing herself. Maybe that’s the show’s greatest lesson: choosing yourself doesn’t mean losing love — sometimes it’s the very thing that makes love possible.
While it may not be groundbreaking television, watching TSITP certainly restored a sliver of hope in my world. It taught me that opportunities to connect are still abundant, social media is a symptom of the content we consume, and that longing for happily ever after is nothing to be ashamed of. It reminded me that while Conrad is fictional, the traits that we love about him aren’t, and that choosing yourself is never the wrong choice. I shamelessly love the show, Taylor Swift and all, and now I’m counting down the days until the sequel movie.
