Since “The Summer I Turned Pretty” first premiered in 2022, fans have asked each other the question: “team Conrad or team Jeremiah?” – it’s Gen Z’s very own “team Edward or team Jacob?” In a lot of ways, the show has been reduced to this question, and many people know “The Summer I Turned Pretty” as the show about ‘those two brothers.’ While entertaining, this question discredits a lot of the messages that Belly’s story puts forth. “The Summer I Turned Pretty” isn’t just a show about a love triangle, and it isn’t just about Conrad vs. Jeremiah – the show is an important representation of a girl’s journey of self-discovery as she deals with all the tribulations that come with growing up.
In interviews, when asked whether she was team Conrad or team Jeremiah, Lola Tung (the actress who plays Belly) consistently answered that she was “team Belly.” I think this answer – the idea that Belly could (and maybe should) choose herself – is a breath of fresh air. After all, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a story about Belly, a person in her own right who doesn’t exist only in relation to Conrad or Jeremiah.
Especially with the release of season 3 over these past few months, it seems as if a lot of people have shifted the focus more and more to Conrad and Jeremiah and away from Belly, the main character. No matter the reason for this, I believe that it undermines the important message of the show by trivializing the development of Belly and, in doing so, reduces the show in the eyes of the mainstream media to a silly show for young girls. This isn’t true – there’s meaning if you choose to look for it and see beyond the love triangle trope.
I believe that Belly is a strikingly realistic representation of a girl who, like so many others, doesn’t know who she is. More importantly, I believe that her journey throughout season 3 to find herself is a testament to the value of the show – value that is lost when we reduce the series to Conrad vs. Jeremiah. Fans have criticized Belly in the earlier seasons for being too wrapped up in Conrad and Jeremiah; yet, when she finally does choose herself and find herself in Paris, fans were annoyed that Conrad wasn’t a part of that. But, I would argue, he couldn’t be a part of that. Belly had to discover who she was on her own, not in relation to Conrad, and I think that this storyline holds so much weight when you consider the target audience of the show: young girls. As a 19 year old girl, I can’t speak exactly to how a younger girl might receive this or be influenced by it, but I would imagine that a valuable lesson is being imparted through Belly. Namely: you have to be the center of your own life before you can make meaningful room for anyone else. Belly spent her whole life pining after Conrad, dating Conrad, dating Jeremiah, and almost marrying Jeremiah. She never knew who she was without them, not until she took herself out of the environment that perpetuated a cycle of dependence on others. This, I think, is what is so important.
Belly, like every single human being, has made mistakes, has hurt people and has been hurt, has been in love and been heartbroken. In all of this is the inherent humanity that makes her such a valuable character for girls to see on their screens. She isn’t larger than life or put on a pedestal – she is painfully relatable and a mirror that reflects the values and experiences of so many girls. She shows us that finding love cannot be our paramount concern if we haven’t first found ourselves
Belly’s other relationships, like her relationship with her mother and with her best friend Taylor, are beautiful representations of female relationships. However, these too are completely overshadowed by Belly’s relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah – but are they really more important? I’d argue that audiences could perhaps derive more value from looking at Belly’s relationships with her mother and Taylor than from Conrad and Jeremiah.
All of Belly’s character development is thrown out the window when the only question we ask about “The Summer I Turned Pretty” is “team Conrad or team Jeremiah?” We forfeit valuable dialogue about coming of age, family dynamics, and female friendships when we only ask this one question. It opens the door for the general public and the media to deem the show a ditsy, superficial teen romance. This is not to say that we need to stop asking this question, because I do think that we can learn from the dynamics of Belly’s relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah and it’s a conversation starter that can bring a lot of people together, we just need to make sure that it’s not the only thing we take away from the show. And maybe it really isn’t that deep, but it’s something to think about.