From T-Swift to ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’, 2023 is for adult teenage girls | Opinion
For 20-somethings like me, 2023 is a summer of teenage nostalgia. It’s a summer of Taylor Swift concerts and “Barbie,” of digital cameras and Abercrombie & Fitch.
That same sense of nostalgia is at the heart of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” the TV adaptation of a book series by UNC-Chapel Hill alum Jenny Han. The show, filmed in North Carolina, has become a hit in its own right and is airing its second season this summer on Prime Video.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” is the story of Belly, a 16-year-old girl who has grown up spending summers at the beach. There’s a love triangle, of course, and Belly finds herself torn between two family friends: her childhood crush, Conrad, and his younger brother, Jeremiah. It’s rich with the first love, heartbreak and growing pains associated with being a teenager.
“With Belly, that story is so much about girlhood and her coming of age, and me really wanting to just pay homage to that moment in a girl’s life and spend a lot of summers with her,” Han, who also serves as co-showrunner on the series, told me. “I think that time is worthy of that space.”
There’s a phrase that has entered the social media lexicon: “being a teenage girl in your 20s.” It describes the experience of being in the throes of early adulthood and still finding joy in things you loved in your youth — Taylor Swift songs, baby tees and teenage love triangles, for example. The hashtag #teenagegirlinher20s has more than 1 million views on TikTok.
We can’t relive our teenage years, and many of us may not want to. But we can pretend, and we can live vicariously through characters who remind us of ourselves. Growing up is a universal experience, and it never really ends (in the words of Taylor Swift, you can be “32 and still growing up now”). That’s why stories like Han’s resonate so well.
“Growth is painful at any age, and I think we’re hopefully all constantly growing and continuing to come of age,” Han said. “I think that’s true for all the characters on the show. That’s the kind of story that I gravitate towards.”
When you’re 24 years old worrying about rent and a 401(k), it’s nice to indulge in a bit of escapism — to recall the angst and whimsy that exists in adolescence. But it may also have something to do with healing. Society forces girls to grow up far too fast — they are robbed of their innocence and carry the weight of the world’s expectations before they even know who they are. We’re told to let boys be boys, but how long do girls really get to be girls?
Now, as adults, “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” Taylor Swift and “Barbie” are letting us be girls again. As it turns out, there’s a lot of camaraderie to be found in reclaiming girlhood together. Groups of women are donning pink and flocking to the theater to see “Barbie” together. At Taylor Swift concerts, attendees exchange homemade friendship bracelets before scream-singing lyrics about cardigans and karma to a stadium of 70,000 people. Fans of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” debate the merits of Conrad vs. Jeremiah on TikTok the same way we labeled ourselves Team Edward or Team Jacob in 2008.
A recent column in The New York Times posits that the success of Swift’s Eras Tour and “Barbie” indicates there is a “huge, underserved market for entertainment that takes the feelings of girls and women seriously.” That market has already proven it has a lot of earning power. “Barbie” has made Greta Gerwig the first solo female director of a billion-dollar movie. Taylor Swift is a record-breaking, chart-topping juggernaut, and the Eras Tour is likely to be the highest-grossing tour of all time. Already renewed for a third season, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” has become the No. 1 show on Prime Video and the books have crept back onto the Amazon bestseller list.
Not so long ago, women might have avoided anything that would lead to them being perceived as “too girly.” Their interest in teen dramas and chick flicks and pop anthems might have been described as shallow. They may have thought themselves too old to find joy in the things they loved when they were younger, let alone share them with the world.
Not anymore.
This story was originally published August 14, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
