On Wednesday, November 30th 2022, I attended a cross media literary event at Pace, presented by the Pace Board club. It took place at One Pace Plaza in the student center. More people attended than I thought would! It filled pretty much the entire student center. The event was a moderated Q&A with the author of The Summer I Turned Pretty and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han, as well as the actor who plays Conrad in the television adaptation of The Summer I Turned Pretty. When I heard about the event, I was beyond excited. I watched the TV show with my mom over the summer when it first came out, and I went on to read the books because I had loved the show so much. I love Jenny’s writing, and I knew I had to go.
The Summer I Turned Pretty is a YA trilogy written by Jenny Han. The first book came out in 2009, and was supposed to become a movie or TV show a while ago, but it just never happened. Finally, this June, the TV adaptation was released on Amazon Prime Video. The series had just become popular again, which made it the perfect time to adapt it.
This semester I got my roommate, Sydney, into watching the show with me. I loved it so much that I just had to share it with her. She liked it too, although not as much as I did, and when the event was announced I made her get a ticket to come with me. I frantically FaceTimed her because I knew the tickets would go fast. The day of the event, I was so excited. We stood in the line outside of the student center to get checked in, and we got front row seats! Jenny Han and Christopher Briney walked right past me to get to the stage. I was so starstruck. I loved Jenny’s work and to see her in front of me was incredible. The room was full. Everyone there was just as starstruck as me. The moderator asked some really interesting questions, which of course elicited very interesting answers. One of the questions that really struck me was when she asked Jenny what advice she would give to aspiring writers (like me), and she said “The best piece of advice I could give would be to find your voice in your writing. And to never stop writing. The only way you can get better at writing is to keep writing.” I took her advice to heart. I’ve had struggles with depression for the past two years, and I have had a book planned out for two years but could never start it. This upcoming winter break I’m dedicating myself to writing it, doing exactly what Jenny said to do.
Another really interesting question that was asked was about the plot of the books, and why it was changed for the show. The first book follows the main character Belly as she spends the summer at her family friends’ house, like she has done for her whole life. The first book is just about her being at the beach house, and her relationship with Conrad and Jeremiah, the family friends’ sons. There is no real plot, but for the show they added a debutante ball as the main event that the characters are working towards through the whole summer. I watched the show first, so when I read the books I was thinking to myself, “Where is the debutante ball?” I quickly learned that it was added for the show, and after reading the books I understood. There isn’t a real plot, a main event happening through the course of the book. They had to add something to the show. Of course, that’s not what Jenny said, but I also agree with her answer. The books were written a decade ago, and originally all of the main characters were white and straight. When they did the show, they changed not just the plot, but the characters to make them more relatable to today’s audience. The actress Lola Tung was cast to play Belly, an Asian-American actress. They also changed Jeremiah’s character by making him not straight. The show never specifies what his sexuality is, which would be unnecessary, but he has relationships with both girls and boys in the show.
As a writer who plans on getting my work published, it was great for me to hear how Jenny got her start, and how her books translated to different forms of media (TV and movies). I loved hearing how much creative control she had in her TV show adaptation of The Summer I Turned Pretty, because I feel like that’s every author’s dream. To be able to see your work exactly as you imagined it come to life must be the most incredible thing. It was also great to hear Chris Briney’s perspective of the book to TV adaptation. He spoke about reading the books to get a real sense of his character’s entire arc, and his general experience as an actor. He also went to Pace, so it was cool to hear his experiences as a student here!
This particular event relates back to our course because of the structure of the event. It was a moderated Q&A, which means that there was a moderator asking questions for the majority of the event, but then the audience was allowed to ask questions and actually participate in the event. Unfortunately, I wasn’t chosen to ask a question, but I was going to ask her how she felt about the changes that were made from book to TV, because basically the entire plot was changed for the show. I loved that we were able to ask questions, even though I didn’t get to ask one. It really made you a participant in the event. It also related to our class because of the content in the event. They talked a lot about changing the aspects of the book to portray a more inclusive cast. I think that has a lot to do with what we talked about in terms of changing the literary.
I really enjoyed this event from a literary standpoint, and as a big fan of the series and the author! I can’t wait to go to more literary events in the future, and now that I have taken this course, I will think about what participatory elements were present in the events I go to.