On Wednesday September 17th, 2025, fans witnessed summer’s end as The Summer I Turned Pretty’s televised three-year run ended. The young-adult romance is recognized as a cultural phenomenon, drawing 25-million viewers for its season three premiere on July 16th, 2025. The series earned the #1 spot on Prime Video charts across 120 countries. The book series TV adaptation amassed 1.1 million posts on TikTok using the hashtag “tsitp.” Additionally, the series, and cast, have participated in countless brand deals, including collections with Coach, American Eagle, and Steve Madden amongst others.
The series follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin as she enters her own during annual summer trips to Cousins Beach, navigating a love triangle with the two Fisher brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah.
Like any other young-adult romance series with a love triangle, The Summer I Turned Pretty has caused discourse among fans. The TV show and books created a significant divide, “Team Conrad”(525.4k views on TikTok) and “Team Jeremiah” (167.5k views on TikTok), focusing on who Belly Conklin should end up with. Some fans have only watched the TV adaptation, while true fans have read the trilogy book series and watched the Prime Video series. With that comes differing opinions on the series.
Alexzandra Nabaka, a freshman, watched the series without reading the book trilogy. When watching the series, she felt “ [The] constant love triangle made [her] feel mixed emotions due to the unpredictable events that just kept happening.” She remarks, “Belly could never seem to pick one brother and it made me invested in the show even more due to the surprise.” One moment that particularly stood out to her was Conrad’s persistence and perseverance through his relationship trials with Belly; Alexzandra says, “Since the beginning of the show, Conrad always seemed to love Belly more than anyone. He could never fully forget about her and was always trying to get her back.” Alexzandra explicitly stated that she stands with “Team Conrad,” because “he always focused on everyone else’s well-being before his, even though, in my opinion, he needed it more than anyone.”
Additionally, Taylor Peterson, a junior who watched the series and read the books, shared her thoughts. She explained that while the books and the show mainly follow the same plot and storyline, there are definitely differences, such as the timeline and ending scene, though important plot points like the endgame and character deaths remained the same. Looking ahead to the upcoming movie, Taylor wishes to see a more detailed look at Belly and Conrad’s life after their Parisian love confession, including their wedding and the reactions of those closest to them. She also believes the movie will solidify her support for Team Conrad, noting that in her opinion, the debate was already settled by the first episode of season three and that soon, “everyone is going to be Team Conrad if they’re not already.”
