And really, their friendship is a love story in itself. Susannah and Laurel’s friendship, as well as their individual personal relationships, were a much bigger part of the show than the book.

Jackie Chung and Rachel Blanchard as Laurel and Susannah in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty.’ Dana Hawley/Prime Video So, I think we’ll figure out where that goes. Well, thank you! We’ll see! We’re still writing the second season now. Will the future seasons include conversations around that even more? We also see her become more experienced and starting to talk about sex. It was great to see the young men in this show constantly asking if they could make a move on Belly. I think it was it was a really natural choice to make. So I felt like for Jeremiah, it really made sense for him because I think he’s a character that’s very comfortable in his own skin and at ease with himself. I was looking at this adaptation and thinking, if I was to write this book today, how would I write these characters? They’re all the same characters, but I think culture has moved in many ways and I think this younger generation is a lot more free about labels and more open minded and less on a binary.

And my heart would definitely turn just like Belly’s would.Ĭan you talk about the decision to make Jeremiah bisexual in the show? So I had a lot of empathy for both of these brothers. I definitely had moments of going back and forth for sure, because I think in order to write these characters, you have to love them and you have to understand them and have empathy for them. I was considering a lot of different possibilities. You never know what could happen with the show. I don’t want to spoil too much but the books have been out for a while. When I was doing Jeremiah’s POV in the second book, I was very much swayed in all directions. Yeah, that was kind of moved up in the first season. Was there a chance that she was going to be with Jeremiah at the end of Season 1 instead of kissing Conrad? In this, she gave him a shot and they were together. In the first book, Belly turned down Jeremiah. I think those are sort of the two things that are always in my head.

My priority has always been that I want fans of the book to feel really satisfied by the story we’re telling, but also for them to know that this is an adaptation in a new medium, so it’s not going to be exactly the same. It’s a bit of a balancing act, because I really had to weigh what the fans are expecting with where the show is going creatively and find that balance. When you were adapting the book, how much pressure did you feel when it came to who Belly chose romantically at what point in her life? Gavin Casalegno and Lola Tung as Jeremiah and Belly in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty.’ Peter Taylor/Prime Video

Belly the summer i turned pretty