‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ has drama, romance and the music of Taylor Swift

By Stephen Thompson,

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, Candice Lim, Carly Rubin, Liz Metzger, Mike Katzif, Jessica Reedy

Published September 16, 2025 at 10:21 AM EDT

Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) in The Summer I Turned Pretty. — Belly (Lola Tung) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) in *The Summer I Turned Pretty*.

The TV series The Summer I Turned Pretty features a messy love triangle, plenty of drama, and a LOT of Taylor Swift songs. The show has become a word-of-mouth sensation, with fans obsessing over whether they're Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah. Now in its final season, the Prime Video series is based on a series of books by Jenny Han (To All The Boys I've Loved Before, XO Kitty).

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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Isabella Gomez Sarmiento

Isabella Gomez Sarmiento is a production assistant with Weekend Edition.

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Candice Lim

Candice Lim is a production assistant at Pop Culture Happy Hour. Prior to joining NPR in 2019, she interned at several publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, WBUR and the Orange County Register. She graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and is proudly from Fullerton, California.

Carly Rubin

Liz Metzger

Mike Katzif

Jessica Reedy

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