Entertainment

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is social media’s latest infatuation

Its themes of nostalgia, self-discovery are reminiscent of another book-to-screen adaptation

Updated 8 months ago · Published on 22 Aug 2023 1:00PM

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is social media’s latest infatuation
Lola Tung plays the main character of Belly, and Christopher Briney plays Conrad Fisher. – ETX Daily Up pic, August 22, 2023

IT'S the series of the moment. Amazon's Prime Video has now released all of the episodes of the second season of the series "The Summer I Turned Pretty," based on the novel of the same name. And fans on social media have much to discuss.

On TikTok, the series ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ is a runaway hit. Adapted from the saga written by Jenny Han, the story tells of the love triangle between Isabel Conklin, aka Belly, and Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher – two brothers. A love story that has captured the hearts of social media users. On the platform, the hashtag #thesummeriturnedpretty has more than 13.2 billion views.

As with all successful films and series, users are getting extra creative to put together what are known as "edits" – montages of scenes from the series set to various trending music clips on the app and some of these have accumulated several million views. Others have simply shared short clips from the episodes by capturing them on their own TV or computer.

@sxndrxedits team jelly #thesummeriturnedpretty #thesummeriturnedprettyseason2 #tsitpseason2 #jeremiahfisher #bellyconklin #teamjeremiah #fyp ♬ sonido original - sandra ♌️
@sxndrxedits team jelly #thesummeriturnedpretty #thesummeriturnedprettyseason2 #tsitpseason2 #jeremiahfisher #bellyconklin #teamjeremiah #fyp ♬ sonido original - sandra ♌️

‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ series checks all the boxes for the pop culture preferences of Gen Z and Millennials: nostalgia, discovery of emotions and sexuality, learning about oneself, the vulnerability of the characters... These are all themes with which viewers identify, and which are reminiscent of another successful book-to-screen adaptation: ‘Twilight’. Stephenie Meyer's saga has entered a new phase of popularity on TikTok, buoyed by both parodies and tributes.

The similarities between the two works have not gone unnoticed by one of the film's leading actors, Taylor Lautner, who himself reacted to the love triangle in a video commented on by an internet user: "Taylor Lautner being Team Jeremiah makes so much sense because team Jeremiah is equivalent to being team Jacob," referring to the love triangle between the ‘Twilight’ characters Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

@yessica__sarahi #greenscreenvideo no hate I love Taylor Lautner and I was team Jacob ☺️ #tsitp #thesummeriturnedpretty #tsitpseason2 #teamjeremiah #teamjacob #teamconrad ♬ Delicate - Taylor Swift

If the buzz around the ‘Summer I Turned Pretty’ series has won over fans among celebrities and regular viewers alike, some brands have also spotted an opportunity and have launched collections referencing the characters. The American Eagle brand, for example, has launched "Team Conrad" and "Team Belly" t-shirts, while also calling on lead actress Lola Tung to wear certain pieces.

And it's not only having an impact in fashion. Beauty brand Moroccanoil has launched a mask in collaboration with the series.

Meanwhile, it's following in a long line of TV shows to storm social media and inspire collaborations such as ‘Friends’, ‘Sex and the City’, and more recently its spinoff ’And Just Like That’. – ETX Daily Up, August 22, 2023

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