The Summer I Turned Pretty Creators Have Issued a Stark Warning to Fans

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3
(Image credit: Credit: Erika Doss/Prime Video)

The Summer I Turned Pretty is undoubtedly the most talked-about show of the season, with the TV adaptation of Jenny Han's bestselling book series breaking Prime Video viewership records.

The viral third season sees Isabella 'Belly' Conklin once more stuck in a love triangle between brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher.

However, with the plot lines ramping up this season, from weddings to cheating story arcs, so too has the online conversation. And with fans of the show splitting off into rival camps, 'Team Conrad' and 'Team Jeremiah', the fan engagement has quickly spun out of control, with reports of online abuse against the cast.

Most of the abuse has targeted Lola Tung, who stars as Belly, as well as Gavin Casalegno, who plays her fiancé Jeremiah Fisher, with the TSITP fandom 'shipping' a relationship with his brother Conrad instead.

And with the actors even said to have received violent threats as a result, creators of the show have officially stepped in to issue a stark warning to fans.

"The show isn't real but the people playing the characters are," Amazon announced in a rare statement this week, adding: "The summer we started acting normal online."

This comes just days after show creator Jenny Han addressed the online negativity, releasing a statement of her own.

"I know fans of the show are passionate and no one has bad intent," she posted. "But even in jest, posting images of a woman being slapped or choked is not funny."

"When people have an attachment to the characters, they want to see it come together at the end," Tung explained of the situation in an interview with Teen Vogue last month. "But people get a little scary about it. Please don’t threaten to kill someone if something doesn’t go your way – I promise you, it’s not that serious."

"Amazon did a good job of stepping in and being like, ‘Hey, no bullying,’" Casalegno added in a recent New York Times Q&A, when asked what it's like playing one of the internet’s most hated boyfriends. "Though, [it's] not really going so well," he added.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season three is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

Jenny Proudfoot
Contributing Features Editor

Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. After working at Marie Claire UK for seven years - rising from intern to Features Editor - she is now a freelance contributor to the News and Features section.

In 2021, Jenny was named as a winner on the PPA's '30 under 30' list, and was also listed as a rising star in journalism.