Interview: Jenny Han on Bringing Her Writing to Life in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’

The Summer I Turned Pretty has proven a huge streaming hit on Amazon Prime, garnering massive audiences for its third season, released earlier this year. The series follows Belly Conklin (Lola Tung) through her romantic and familial relationships. 

In conversation with Jenny Han, the bestselling author, creator, and co-showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty, we dive into her experience shaping the television adaptation of her beloved trilogy. Jenny details what it was like to steer the show through three seasons alongside her trusted cast and crew, direct for the first time, and start developing a feature-film version. She also reflects on her journey as a novelist having now had the opportunity to adapt her work and how impactful it is for new audiences to find meaning in her stories and characters.

Read our full conversation with The Summer I Turned Pretty creator and co-showrunner Jenny Han below.

Hi, this is Danny Jarabek here with Awards Radar, and I’m so delighted to have with me today Jenny Han, author, creator, and co–showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Jenny, thank you so much for taking the time, and congratulations on not only the success of The Summer I Turned Pretty, but just watching your career evolve and all the success that you’ve had. It’s been wonderful to watch.

Aww, thank you so much.

Yeah, of course. So, talking about Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty, I’m really curious to hear, what was your mentality and creative process moving from Season 2 to 3, knowing that there might be more changes to the source material in store? What did that process look like for you?

I was really just thinking about landing the plane and giving a satisfying conclusion to the story

What were some of the conversations that you were having with your cast, your crew, your writers about what “landing the plane” meant for the series?

My north star is always going back to the story and the intentions behind the story. I think that’s what I would do anytime I felt unsure about something, I would just go back and look at the original text.

It’s incredible that you have the opportunity to do that back and forth. I’m also really interested in your past production experience. How did your time with screen adaptations such as the To All the Boys trilogy impact your role developing this, and how did it shape your experience working through The Summer I Turned Pretty?

I think that people, maybe if you’re not in the industry, don’t realize that movies and TV are pretty different. Movies are more focused around the director and TV is more of a writer’s medium. That’s why I wanted to do The Summer I Turned Pretty as a TV show, just because as the writer of the books, I wanted to be able to have my vision of the story. I think that was most exciting for me going into it, to be able to have so much space to tell a story and to really spend time with these characters.

I think it reads in just the amount of time that we are able to grow alongside these characters as an audience, for sure. You also, in your many roles with this series, had an opportunity to direct an episode this season. What was that experience like, and what did you learn from it?

That was really an amazing experience. I think it was very joyful. I loved getting to learn new things, and I felt really fortunate to have been working with the same cast and crew for years. So we were always in conversation with each other, and I felt really supported. I think the biggest difference for me is that it’s almost like having a direct line. It felt very freeing to be able to have direct conversations. Really, the whole experience was like a long conversation.

You mentioned having that ongoing relationship with your cast and crew through the three seasons. What was special about that, and were there any relationships that really stood out as a strong creative foundation moving through three seasons of the show?

Going into the show, I had never done TV before. I had been a producer on the To All the Boys movies, but this was a very different experience from the start of the writers’ room and writing the pilot, to being on set. For a lot of the cast, it was their first big job. With Lola [Tung], she was a freshman in college when she auditioned for the show. That was part of what made the experience special, because we were all discovering it together. Coming from being a novelist, where you’re on your own and it’s a very solitary creative experience, it is really fun to be working as a team.

You mentioned your experience as a novelist and how that translated into other mediums and maybe impacted how you think about different mediums. Has your experience as a showrunner and producer altered the way you think about writing at all as well?

I don’t think so. Writing is writing. I guess the biggest difference is film is much more a live thing. It’s a living, breathing thing. You could have a certain idea in your head, you write the scene, and then you’re watching it play out, and it can take on these different colors. That’s the beauty of film because it’s a collaborative effort. With a book, the words are the words.

That’s a really beautiful sentiment. I love that idea of what’s on the page as an archive of where you were in time.

I love that. I think of it like a message in a bottle. I wrote The Summer I Turned Pretty, the first one, in 2008 (started writing it in 2007), and then people in 2025 are reading it. That’s a message from a different, twenty-something version of me into the future.

Speaking to that evolution and how the story has been brought to new audiences, what was it like seeing a character like Belly, who must have felt extremely close to you when you wrote it, grow and evolve into a character who’s found new audiences and been brought to life by Lola Tung?

That’s part of it being a living, breathing thing. With casting Lola, I just knew she had something rare and special about her, and she brings all of that specialness to the character and imbues Belly with so much of herself. That’s the case for all the actors. They’re bringing their talents and their gifts, and in many ways it’s always a reimagining. For me as the author, I have the book version in my mind, and then there’s the show version. It’s not like identical twins.

Alongside Lola, how did Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno and other cast members weigh on that story evolution as well?

They all have their own different qualities that make them who they are, and ways they interpret the character and interpret a scene. It’s really a delight for me to sometimes be surprised by a choice they make that maybe I didn’t see that way. Then the audience has their own reaction to it. Again, going back to what I was saying earlier about it being this living, breathing thing and everybody having their own interpretations and reactions.

So much of the series is built around Belly’s romantic explorations and her finding herself amidst that journey. I think it’s beautiful that the finale brings a lot of those experiences back to reflect on. What was important to you about thinking in that way and thinking back on the experiences and years that have passed within the world of the show?

I would say that if there’s any kind of message or takeaway I want people to have from the show, it’s that you can make really big mistakes and disappoint people and disappoint yourself, but there’s always a way forward. It’s important to have grace with yourself. And I think so much of Belly’s story is feeling deep shame for the ways she’s hurt people, and then it leads her to hide. To me, the most important part of her journey is that as a young woman, she’s able to love herself and not walk around feeling the weight of all her past mistakes.

That’s wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. Just before I let you go, I know the process on the movie is probably well underway, but are there any small hints or tidbits you can share about what we can be excited for?

Sarah Kucserka, my co-showrunner, and I have finished a draft. I can say it’s been a pure joy writing it, and I had so much fun doing it. And it’s exactly the kind of movie I like to watch. I want it to feel complete, and something that, even if you’ve never watched the show before, you can come and enjoy. I think there aren’t as many romantic comedies that are really centered around family and grounded in that way being made right now, so I’m excited to offer something to that audience.

Just knowing you had fun making it is all I need to know to have faith in the process and the project.

It’s also really fun to be able to tell a complete story within a movie format, an hour and a half or whatever. I love these characters, I love the actors, but truly, I just love movies. So it’s a fun, different challenge. I want it to be something fans of the show will love, but also something people who’ve never even heard of the show can enjoy too.

That’s great. Thank you so much, Jenny. I really appreciate the insight.

Absolutely.

Best of luck with everything moving forward. I can’t wait to see the movie. I’ve had so many wonderful, fun, vibrant conversations about this show with people who’ve had the opportunity to see it. So I’m really glad.

I think the fun of it is people talking about these characters and stories and having these wild conversations.

Of course. It’s definitely been a wild ride.