15 TV Shows Like The Summer I Turned Pretty

Based on Jenny Han’s book trilogy of the same name, the Prime Video original series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” ran for three short but successful seasons from 2022 to 2025, focusing on the titular glow-up of Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung). Belly, who spends her summers in the fictional town of Cousins Beach alongside her mother Laurel Park (Jackie Chung) at the house of Laurel’s best friend Susannah Fisher (Rachel Blanchard), ultimately finds herself caught between two boys… who just happen to be brothers. Even though Belly has been in love with Susannah’s eldest son, Conrad (Christopher Briney), for her entire life, Conrad’s younger brother, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno), starts noticing just how pretty she is shortly before her 16th birthday, creating a good old-fashioned love triangle. The whole thing ends happily, but the journey to the conclusion is rife with drama, and a follow-up movie is on the way, too.

If you’ve already watched (and re-watched) all three seasons of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” too many times, what should you check out next? We’ve got some suggestions. From classic teen shows to ones that also feature major love triangles to other shows pioneered by Han, here’s what you should watch if you love “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”

Plenty of great teen dramas precede “The O.C.,” but you can’t deny that this show helped reinvigorate the genre — and paved the way for shows like “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” Created by Josh Schwartz, “The O.C.” premiered in 2003 and introduced us to Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), a neglected teen from the hardscrabble California city of Chino who gets in trouble trying to steal a car with his brother. 

After Ryan is rescued by his public defender Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher), we meet Sandy’s wife Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) — who’s not happy about Ryan now living in her massive estate’s pool house — and Sandy and Kirsten’s son Seth (Adam Brody), a friendless and nerdy kid who immediately forms a bond with Ryan. Besides the Cohens, Ryan meets the beautiful but troubled girl next door, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), and sparks fly right away.

“The O.C.” is funny, soapy, heartfelt, shockingly emotional, and features great performances, especially from Brody, Gallagher, and Rachel Bilson, who plays Seth’s crush and eventual girlfriend Summer Roberts. If you love “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” go “right back where we started from” and check out “The O.C.”

“Gossip Girl” is considerably nastier and dirtier than “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” but that’s precisely what makes it so fun. Also created by Josh Schwartz (alongside Stephanie Savage) and based (loosely) on a series of young adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, “Gossip Girl” is set in Manhattan’s Upper East Side (and, sometimes, in the then-unfashionable borough of Brooklyn) and focuses on a privileged group of teenagers that includes queen bee Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), bad boy Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), beautiful but flighty Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), and nice-guy-mired-in-family-drama Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford). 

Add in Brooklyn-based outcasts and siblings Dan and Jenny Humphrey (Penn Badgley and Taylor Momsen) and some drama between the parents — especially former lovers Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) and Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle) — and you’ve got plenty of over-the-top messiness to keep you entertained. “Gossip Girl” is heightened, often borderline stupid, and patently silly. It’s also awesome. If you’re looking for a teen show that really leans into its wildest impulses, give this one a try. (You can and should, however, skip the HBO Max reboot.)

Winnie Holzman’s classic teen series “My So-Called Life” only managed to stick around for a single season on ABC from 1994 to 1995, but it’s still definitely worth watching — especially if you like the swooning, yearning teen romance on “The Summer I Turned Pretty.” The series gives the spotlight to Angela Chase — played perfectly by a young Claire Danes — who’s trying to navigate love and life as a teenager in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Penn., alongside her best friends Rayanne Graff (A.J. Langer) and Enrique “Rickie” Vasquez (Wilson Cruz). 

In the process, Angela falls head over heels in love with her school’s brooding hot guy Jordan Catalano (future Oscar winner Jared Leto), even though her socially awkward but sweet neighbor Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall) has been carrying a torch for her for years. Across just one short season, “My So-Called Life” perfectly captures the huge emotions of being a young woman, and Danes, in particular, makes the entire show work.

If you’re thinking that Netflix’s teen series “My Life With the Walter Boys” — adapted from Ali Novak’s novel that began as Wattpad fiction — sounds really similar to “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” you’re honestly right; both shows are coming-of-age stories about a young woman torn between two brothers. In this take on a familiar story, though, 15-year-old Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez), a Manhattanite whose parents and sister die suddenly in an accident, is sent to live in the middle of nowhere in Colorado with her mother’s best friend Katherine Walter (“Suits” standout Sarah Rafferty). 

Upon arriving, Jackie meets Katherine’s sons: fraternal twins Cole and Danny (Noah LaLonde and Connor Stanhope), aspiring entrepreneur Will (Johnny Link), nerdy and quiet Alex (Ashby Gentry) and Nathan (Corey Fogelmanis), who’s openly queer and also dealing with some serious health struggles. 

As she tries to make a new life in Colorado with the Walters, Jackie finds herself interested in both Alex and Cole, despite their differences — Alex prefers to curl up with a good book, and Cole is still grappling with an injury that ended his high school football career. If you like “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” you’ll definitely like “My Life With the Walter Boys.”

Created by Mindy Kaling for Netflix, the whip-smart, hilarious “Never Have I Ever” follows Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) through three years of high school — and she’s desperate to reinvent herself after her freshman year was derailed by her father’s sudden and tragic death. As a sophomore, Devi decides she’s ready to start dating … and while she dreams of dating the school’s most popular boy, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnet), she also often finds herself drawn to Ben Gross (Jaren Lewison), her academic rival with whom she has admittedly great chemistry. 

The funniest part of “Never Have I Ever” is, unquestionably, the fact that Devi’s entire story is narrated by tennis pro John McEnroe for no reason other than that it’s hilarious, and thanks to Ramakrishnan’s outstanding anchoring performance and a gorgeous turn from Poorna Jagannathan as Devi’s strict mother Nalini, “Never Have I Ever” is a really special teen show. Plus, it’s got that love triangle fans of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” might be craving.

Adapted from Carola Lovering’s hit novel of the same name, the Hulu original “Tell Me Lies” focuses on an unbelievably toxic relationship and is told across dual timelines … so basically, it’s what “The Summer I Turned Pretty” would look like if you isolated all of the most toxic moments between Belly and both Fisher brothers. 

When Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) starts her freshman year at Baird College, she meets upperclassman Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White), a handsome and alluring but frankly vile guy who has a mysterious hold over Lucy. Despite the fact that Stephen has a girlfriend, the two start a dalliance while they attend college in 2007 … and their group of close-knit mutual friends brings them back together for a wedding in 2015.

“Tell Me Lies” is steamy, disorienting, full of people making absolutely inexplicable decisions — something that also happens a lot on “The Summer I Turned Pretty” — and it’s also a delight. For a much more adult take on teen romance, try this buzzy series.

After the success of the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” movies on Netflix, author Jenny Han, who also wrote those books, helped create the spin-off “XO, Kitty” for the streamer, focusing on Catherine “Kitty” Song-Covey (Anna Cathcart), the younger sister of the film trilogy’s Lara Jean Song-Covey (Lana Condor). Kitty, who’s dealing with a long-distance relationship with Dae-heon “Dae” Kim (Choi Min-young) between her home in California and his in South Korea, accepts an opportunity to go study in Seoul. Though she attempts to surprise Dae, that goes horribly awry… but while studying at the Korean Independent School of Seoul, or KISS, Kitty ends up finding herself.

“XO, Kitty,” which also streams on Netflix, is sweet, heartfelt, and funny, and Cathcart makes just as charming of a lead as Condor did in the film series. Plus, it shares an author with “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” so if you’re doing a deep dive on Han’s work, don’t miss this series.

Based on Rachel Cohn and David Levithan’s novel series “Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares,” Netflix’s simply titled “Dash & Lily” stars future “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls” star Midori Francis as Lily and eventual “Weapons” standout Austin Abrams as Dash, two teenagers who end up falling for each other after leaving entries in a shared notebook. (Dash first discovers the book, which offers him a dare; Lily left it in the wilds of New York, hoping a potential boyfriend might find it.) The entire show is set at Christmastime, adding some romantic whimsy to the proceedings — Dash is a self-professed Christmas hater, while Lily, a romantic, loves the holiday.

Unfortunately, “Dash & Lily” was canceled after just one season, but if you love the sweetness of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and need a quick fix, give this short series a try. As a bonus, it makes a particularly good binge-watch during the holidays.

Author Alice Oseman adapted her own graphic novel, “Heartstopper,” for Netflix, and alongside the streamer, she and the creative team brought this heartwarming and sweet story to life across three short seasons (with a wrap-up movie on the way). The story focuses on Charlie Spring (“Agatha All Along” standout Joe Locke), who was outed at school but now proudly embraces his identity as a young queer man; unfortunately, the object of his affection — Nick Nelson, a popular rugby star played by Kit Connor — is completely oblivious. Charlie already has plenty to deal with, though. In Season 1, he’s in a secret relationship with another classmate, Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft), who isn’t quite ready to come out.

Locke and Connor are absolutely incredible as Charlie and Nick, who do eventually get together after Nick embraces his bisexual identity in the show’s inaugural season. “Heartstopper” is a wonderfully inclusive and dreamy show. Not only that, but it’s full of teens yearning for one another, which should keep fans of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” plenty happy.

Even though Netflix’s series “Ginny & Georgia” is primarily about a mother and daughter — 31-year-old Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) and her teen daughter Ginny (Antonia Gentry) — it’s still a story about a teen struggling with life and love in a small town like “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” and it might remind you of the sweet relationship between Belly and Laurel on that series. On “Ginny & Georgia,” though, the duo finds themselves in that small town — the fictional Wellsbury, Massachusetts — alongside Georgia’s son and Ginny’s half-brother Austin (Diesel La Torraca) after the death of Georgia’s husband.

It’s ultimately revealed that Georgia has a dark past she’s constantly trying to dodge, but still, the Millers stay in Wellsbury and become a part of the community. If you love the low-stakes drama of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” but sometimes wished it would get a little crazier from time to time, “Ginny & Georgia” has all of the heightened drama you’re looking for in a series.

Teen dramas were in their heyday during the early aughts, and that includes “One Tree Hill,” which was created by Mark Schwahn and ran for nine seasons on The WB and The CW from 2003 to 2012. All the drama on this show takes place in the titular and fictional town of Tree Hill in North Carolina, where basketball is everything. 

During the show’s inaugural season, the action revolves around half-brothers Lucas and Nathan Scott (Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty), who have experienced radically different upbringings (Nathan grew up with considerable privilege, and Lucas and his single mom struggled to make ends meet). Eventually, the show introduces characters like Nathan’s girlfriend Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton), Peyton’s best friend Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush), and Lucas’ best friend-turned-girlfriend Haley James (Bethany Joy Lenz), widening its scope.

“One Tree Hill” is a classic for a reason — what other teen drama features a scene where a dog eats a human organ by accident?! — and it produced stars like Murray, Burton, and Bush. If the love triangles and drama on “The Summer I Turned Pretty” appeal to you, try “One Tree Hill.”

Another staple of the teen drama genre, “Dawson’s Creek” features one of the most hotly debated love triangles in the history of said genre: Should Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) choose Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) or Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson)? 

Set in the fictional small town of Capeside, Massachusetts, “Dawson’s Creek” — which was, incredibly, a mid-season replacement that ended up becoming one of the most famous teen dramas of all time and was helmed by “Scream” writer Kevin Williamson — simply focuses on the lives of Dawson, Joey, and Pacey, as well as their friends like newcomer Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) and Dawson’s parents, Gail and Mitch Leery (Mary-Margaret Humes and John Wesley Shipp, respectively).

Responsible for a well-loved meme of Dawson crying and the careers of Van Der Beek, Jackson, Holmes, and Williams, “Dawson’s Creek” set the standard for teen dramas and love triangles going forward. We might not even have Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah without Joey, Pacey, and Dawson. 

On some level, “The Sex Lives of College Girls” will always be known as the show that put pop star and actress Reneé Rapp on the map in a big way — but it’s so much more than that. Created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, the series centers around four new roommates — Leighton (Rapp), Kimberly (Pauline Chamalet, who, yes, is Timothée’s older sister in real life), Bela (Amrit Kaur), and Whitney (Alyah Chanelle Scott) — at the fictional Essex College in New England, who end up becoming fast friends despite their obvious differences. Kimberly, a scholarship student, struggles to fit in with her wealthier friends, while Leighton grapples with her choice to come out as a lesbian; Whitney, an over-achieving athlete and student, tries to balance all of her interests; and Bela, an obvious stand-in for Kaling herself, tries to make inroads at Essex’s renowned comedy magazine The Catullan. 

Unfortunately, Rapp — whose profile rose and whose singing career took off as a result of the show — left “The Sex Lives of College Girls” at the beginning of its third season, and worse still, the show ended up canceled after that season concluded. Still, this HBO Max original is an absolute delight and takes a witty and irreverent approach to sex.

If you love the beachfront setting of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” but, for whatever reason, wish the show involved way more treasure hunting, “Outer Banks” is perfect for you. Set in the titular outer banks of North Carolina, the show focuses on two groups: the “Kooks,” made up of wealthy seasonal visitors to the beach town, and the “Pogues,” the far less wealthy denizens who live there all year long and resent the Kooks (but still count on their business every summer). The main group of teens that the show follows, though, is the Pogues, especially because they’re searching for two missing things. One is a person — the father of the group’s ringleader John B. Routledge (Chase Stokes), who’s gone missing, and a treasure that might have belonged to him.

“Outer Banks,” which also stars Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, and Rudy Pankow (among others), is delightfully dishy, super heightened, and sometimes absurd, but always fun. Basically, it’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” with a massive mystery subplot.

Adapted from E.L. Lockhart’s 2014 novel of the same name, the Prime Video series “We Were Liars” can, much like “Outer Banks,” be described as “The Summer I Turned Pretty” with a twist — only this time, it’s a murder mystery. When we first meet Cadence “Cady” Sinclair Eastman (Emily Alyn Lind), she’s recovering from an accident that caused her to lose two months’ worth of memories — strangely, all she remembers is that before her accident, she shared a kiss with her crush Gat Patil (Shubham Maheshwari). As Cady tries to figure out what happened in those two lost months, her family starts acting more and more strangely, leading to a reveal that nobody, least of all Cady, expects.

“We Were Liars” is campy, soapy, and heightened in all the best ways, and Lind is flanked by an excellent cast that includes Mamie Gummer, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Rahul Kohli, Joseph Zada, and David Morse. Looking for a steamy series set in a beautiful beach house, but with more of a thriller vibe than “The Summer I Turned Pretty” offers? “We Were Liars” is your best bet.

As for “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” it’s also streaming on Prime Video now.