From igniting Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah arguments to reintroducing Taylor Swift to every playlist, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has become one of the most talked-about romantic dramas of the decade.
Based on Jenny Han’s bestselling coming-of-age trilogy, the Prime Video adaptation follows teenager Isabel “Belly” Conklin through romance, friendships and family at Cousins Beach.
Since premiering in 2022, the series has catapulted well beyond its intended teen audience and has sparked cross-platform conversation in a hyper-engaged fandom. Within its first week, the show drew 25 million viewers worldwide on Prime Video. The final season also hit No. 1 in more than 120 countries and became the platform’s most-watched series among women aged 18 to 34.
Sophomore Evan Gur said he noticed how quickly the program gained popularity.
“I wanted to check out the show because I saw how everyone at school was talking about it and all my friends were watching it too,” Gur said. “A bunch of my friends were sending me TikTok edits of the show, and those videos quickly took over my feed, so I felt like I had to watch it.”
Polls, memes and edits invite constant participation, and arguments spill from comments into real life conversations. College sophomore Bella Nguyen said the show created a fanbase that shapes how viewers connect with one another.
“It seems like everyone at school and online takes sides,” Nguyen said. “It’s funny how invested people get in who’s the ‘right’ choice. I found myself joining in on Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah arguments to see what my friends thought.”
Those teams now function like micro-communities. Online, fan edits dominate feeds on TikTok and Instagram, cementing the drama as a shared language. Nguyen said the show’s massive popularity has taken over many everyday conversations across generations on topics like love and identity development.
“At this point, it feels like everyone is talking about it,” Nguyen said. “I can’t scroll through Instagram or TikTok without seeing a video about Team Conrad or Jeremiah. It’s like this show has the ability to take over everyone’s social life for months.”
This rampant conversation fueled by social media checks out. In just the month of September, nearly 200,000 posts using the hashtag #TheSummerITurnedPretty on TikTok accumulated 2.9 billion views globally.
For some viewers, the impact can be more personal. Junior Peter Revenaugh said the storylines reframed how he navigates friendships.
“I now think more about how I interact with people and handle friendships after watching the show,” Revenaugh said. “It taught me that communicating through misunderstandings really helps.”
For Gur, the show had impacts beyond just the storyline.
“After watching it, I started to be interested in things I had never thought I would have,” Gur said. “‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ influenced me especially with music. Since the show always played Taylor Swift songs, I now have added so many of her songs to my playlists. I never saw myself as a Taylor Swift type of guy, but here I am now.”
Gur’s experience mirrors a broader musical ripple effect. In 2022, three years after Taylor Swift’s “Lover” album released, songs that were featured in “The Summer I Turned Pretty” such as “Cruel Summer” and “This Love” climbed into the Billboard Top 40. With nearly 4 million streams in the weeks after the premier of the show, the album climbed from Swift’s number four to number one most streamed album on Spotify.
Collectively, Revenaugh said these various reactions point to something bigger. He said ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ has become a shared cultural touchpoint that blends romance, nostalgia and a carefully curated soundtrack into a template for fans to talk, listen and relate.
Revenaugh said, “It seems like everyone takes something from the show, whether it’s music, debates or even how you see yourself.”
