Felicia Roberts
The Summer I Turned Pretty books, written by Jenny Han, were a huge part of my teenage years. They made me blush, they made me cry. I was obsessed. So when I heard there was an Amazon series adaptation coming I was so excited but I was also scared.
Film and TV adaptations of books notoriously haven’t done their novels justice. They change the micro moments so much so, that the plot doesn’t make sense. The characters no longer resemble canon characters and relationships.
But this is not what happened in this situation.
Micro-aggressions
Although the majority of the series remained true to the authentic storyline, Han did make some updates to make it more current and contemporary. As the main characters are of Asian American decent, the series did well to demonstrate the everyday micro-aggressions and subtle racism that POC have to endure.
“the only character who really interacted with race”
Stephen, played by Sean Kaufman, the protagonist’s – Isabel (Belly) Conklin played by Lola Tung – brother had a more fleshed out role unlike in the books. And to add to that he was the only character who really interacted with the topic of race. When working as a waiter at a poker game held by elite older white men, Stephen stood in absolute shock and silence as the players comedically discussed harmful stereotypes held against Asian people.
This wasn’t in the books however I believe it was a great scene to add because racism is a huge topic today and it’s important we teach teenagers about these issues.
Bisexuality in The Summer I Turned Pretty
Belly’s childhood best friend and love interest Jeremiah Fisher, played by Gavin Casalegno, is bisexual in the new adaptation. Amazingly though, his sexuality is never brought up or made a big deal out of which is so important for teenagers to see. Liking boys and girls, at the same time, is normal and no one should be questioning that in 2022.
Drugs and underage drinking
Another way that Han modernised the series is to introduce alcohol and drugs. As many states in the US move to legalise marijuana, the Summer I Turned Pretty reflected this in the fact that the teenagers and their mums smoke weed instead of cigarettes.
“Han is normalising both medicinal and recreational uses of drugs”
Conrad, played by Christopher Briney, and Jeremiah’s mum has cancer, which may be the reason that she uses the specific drug, but the rest of the cast clearly only use it for fun. This shows that Han is normalising both medicinal and recreational uses of drugs that were previously seen as immoral.
Along with cannabis, the teenage characters are also seen drinking alcohol even though they are underage. The teenagers drink in the family home with their parents around who had no idea what was going on. I don’t believe that Han added this scene to be controversial, or to encourage people to drink irresponsibly or illegally; I believe it was added to show that teenagers often break rules and drink sometimes, whether it’s liked or not.
Debutante Ball
I think it was an interesting choice to adapt the books to screen by adding a coming-of-age party because these types of events definitely divide opinion, as reflected in the show. But that is the reality of feminism. Women should have the right and freedom to chose to do whatever they want. Whether they want to shun or partake in debutante balls, we should be allowed to. We can reclaim these parties rooted in misogyny for our own benefit.
The ball also allowed Belly to make more connections with other girls which didn’t really happen in the book trilogy. I found this entirely applaudable because it shows young girls the importance of surrounding yourself with powerful women.
Final thoughts on The Summer I Turned Pretty
Even though I loved that the 2022 screen adaptation was almost exactly the same as the books, bringing my mental pictures to life; I also really admired the little tweaks that was made to bring it to life in todays society.
Featured image courtesy of Nathan Hurst via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
