Intro
Even if you’ve never watched a single episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty, you have probably seen it circulate online. Since the Season 3 premiere on Amazon Prime Video, fan edits, reaction videos, and debates have flooded social media platforms such as TikTok and Twitter/X. Fans split into two rival teams: #TeamConrad and #TeamJeremiah, which catapulted conversations that extend far beyond the episodes themselves, making TSITP not just a streaming success but also a cultural phenomenon.
Media scholar Henry Jenkins (2006) describes fandom in the digital age as participatory, where audiences today are not passive consumers but play an active role in producing meaning. The Summer I Turned Pretty captures this perfectly by transforming its teen romance into its own parasocial economy that thrives on audience interaction.
For many online viewers, the show is not just entertainment, it’s a social event. Even non-fans have likely encountered it through trending sounds, memes, or “Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah” edits. This level of engagement points to a broader media shift: the way streaming TV and social media platforms turns emotional attachment into visibility, and visibility into profit.
Psychologists Horton and Wohl (1956) once called this mediated closeness parasocial interaction: the illusion of intimacy with characters who feel real. On TikTok, those attachments circulate through their algorithm. Crystal Abidin (2018) calls this digital intimacy: the way emotional connection online can be converted into attention and economic value. The Summer I Turned Pretty captures this perfectly, turning teenage love into a case study of how streaming television and social media monetise feeling. It’s less about who Belly chooses in the end, and more about how millions of viewers, and even non-viewers, got pulled into choosing with her.
Love Triangles as Parasocial Hooks
The heart of The Summer I Turned Pretty beats within its love triangle between Belly and the Fisher brothers, Conrad and Jeremiah. On the surface, it’s a classic teen romance, but the love triangle functions as something more powerful, a parasocial hook that calls for viewers to pick sides and stake emotion in fictional relationships. Audience rally behind #TeamConrad or #TeamJeremiah with utmost intensity, defending their chosen brother as if the on-screen tension were happening in real life. Psychologists Horton and Wohl (1956) describe this phenomenon as parasocial interaction. They refer to this as a mediated sense of closeness that makes imagined relationships feel personal. For many fans of the show, picking a team becomes an act of emotional self-projection. Belly’s final choice feels like a reflection of their own ideals about love, loyalty, and what “the right choice” says about them. For younger audiences, choosing a “team” can also feel like choosing an identity. Online fandom offers a sense of belonging that mirrors the emotional communities once formed through fan clubs or conventions. The intensity of #TeamConrad and #TeamJeremiah shows how social media has replaced these older fan spaces, turning collective emotion into a public performance of taste and loyalty.
This kind of pattern of audience division is not unique to TSITP. Nearly 20 years ago, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels and their film adaptations produced the infamous #TeamEdward versus #TeamJacob debate, which similarly divided fans into sides that extended beyond the novels and films. Back then, fan battles played out on Tumblr, and fan-fiction forums. Today they erupt in real time across TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). TSITP exists in a new digital ecosystem where fan discourse spreads at algorithmic speed. Hashtags trend globally within hours of a new episode dropping, and comment threads turn into mini warzones of opinion.
Media theorist Henry Jenkins (2006) frames this kind of engagement as participatory culture. This refers to a space where fans don’t just consume media but actively co-create its meaning through their own labour. TSITP’s love triangle provides the perfect material for this kind of participation, with fans editing scenes together, debating story arcs, and producing content that reinforce their allegiance to one character which ultimately keeps the show alive between seasons. Mainstream media has also amplified the intensity of this rivalry. According to Teen Vogue (2024), the Season 3 finale triggered a wave of edits, memes, and online debates, reflecting how deeply audiences had invested in the characters’ fates. What was once a plot device has become a catalyst for ongoing discourse that blurs the line between fiction and reality. In doing so, TSITP transforms a familiar romantic trope into a parasocial hook, a mechanism designed to transform teen romance into a fandom economy.
TikTok and the Fandom Economy
If the love triangle is the emotional hook of The Summer I Turned Pretty, TikTok is the machine that turns this attachment into a fandom economy. Fan-made edits of the main three cast, which are frequently paired with Taylor Swift songs like August or You Belong With Me, circulate widely across the platform. These clips not only dramatise the love triangle but also reinforce fan loyalties, circulating far beyond Prime Video’s official channels. A short video edit can reach millions overnight, becoming more influential than traditional advertising campaigns.
Henry Jenkins (2006) describes this phenomenon as “spreadable media”, where audiences drive circulation through their own creative labour. Rather than remaining passive viewers, fans actively create and circulate content that extend the show’s visibility. Anthropologist Crystal Abidin (2018) argues that this kind of online intimacy is increasingly commodified, as the emotional labour invested in producing edits and memes effectively work as free promotion. This cycle is encouraged by TikTok’s algorithm, which privileges emotionally charged content. The more dramatic or sentimental a fan edit feels, the more the platform amplifies it. In effect, the algorithm becomes a co-producer, determining which fictional moments dominate the public imagination. TSITP illustrates this clearly, as fan-made content sustains hype between episodes and ensures the show remains present in digital conversation.
Mainstream outlets have also documented this cycle. Teen Vogue (2024) reported how TikTok edits of the Season 3 finale dominated feeds, prolonging the #TeamConrad versus #TeamJeremiah debate weeks after release. The show’s TikTok presence helped it cross generational boundaries, drawing in millennial viewers who first discovered it through viral clips.
The result is an economy where fan activity itself produces value. The time spent editing, posting, and debating, directly fuels Prime Video’s profitability. TikTok, in this sense, is not just a fan space but a promotional infrastructure. In doing so, The Summer I Turned Pretty reveals how contemporary television depends on platforms where emotional attachment is instantly converted into visibility and profit.
Commodification of Intimacy
Beneath the show’s parasocial love triangle and its viral speed on TikTok lies a broader dynamic: the commodification of intimacy. The emotional connections fans form with Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah are not just expressions of attachment but sources of economic value. As Horton and Wohl (1956) explain, parasocial bonds create an illusion of personal connection with characters. In the current streaming environment, these bonds are actively monetised. Amazon Prime benefits from subscription renewals tied to ongoing fan interest, while digital outlets turn fan rivalries into articles, and think pieces such as “Why Belly Chose Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah Deserved Better”. In this way, intimacy itself becomes raw material for digital industries.
Crystal Abidin (2018) argues that intimacy online is often commercialised, where personal feelings feed into platform economies. TSITP makes this especially visible. Each TikTok edit or Twitter thread may begin as a genuine expression of fan passion, but collectively they function as free labour that keeps the show visible and profitable. Henry Jenkins (2006) likewise highlights how fan activity, once existing at the margins of media industries, has now been integrated into corporate strategies. In the TSITP, Prime Video relies on the constant churn of fan content to maintain cultural relevance and extend the show’s life beyond its episodes.
This process raises a wider cultural question: what happens when love stories become business models? When teen romance is repackaged as a parasocial experience and circulated through digital platforms, ideas about intimacy are filtered through economic structures. Audiences are not only spectators of Belly’s romance but participants in an economy where their emotional investments are leveraged for profit. Therefore, TSITP demonstrates how intimacy has shifted from being a private feeling to becoming a commodity within the attention economy. This blurring of affection and marketing also mirrors influencer culture, where authenticity itself is monetised. Fans of TSITP act as micro-influencers, curating their emotional response for likes, reach, and recognition which is proof that the logic of visibility now extends far beyond celebrities. What we feel is no longer just felt; it’s tracked, shared, and solid.
The Summer I Turned Pretty demonstrates how contemporary streaming television thrives on parasocial fandom economies. The romance at its centre is more than a narrative device, it functions as a parasocial hook that urges viewers to declare allegiances and emotionally “choose sides”. Social media platforms, particularly TikTok, then amplifies these attachments with edits and memes circulating faster and further than Prime Video’s own promotional campaigns. Finally, this labour is monetised. Amazon profits from subscriptions, media outlets capitalise on fan rivalries for clicks and engagement, and intimacy itself becomes commodified.
This cycle is not unique to TSITP, but it reveals how love stories have become crucial to the attention economy. As Horton and Wohl’s (1956) concept of parasocial interaction suggests, mediated intimacy has long blurred the line between fiction and reality. What is new, as Abidin (2018) and Jenkins (2006) argue, is how these bonds are commodified and integrated into corporate strategies. What was once a private or personal emotional investment is now systematically harnessed as promotional energy and economic value.
The consequences extend beyond one hit Amazon series. For Gen Z, romance narratives like TSITP are experienced not only as entertainment but also as cultural economies where intimacy itself is packaged, circulated, and sold. The debates between #TeamConrad and #TeamJeremiah may appear playful, but they reveal how deeply personal emotions are embedded within platform logics. TSITP is therefore more than a nostalgic teen romance. It is a case study in how digital culture transforms love itself into a commodity, with audiences actively participating in its exchange. As streaming culture continues to merge with social media, the tension between feeling and monetisation will only intensify. Love stories like The Summer I Turned Pretty remind us that in the age of endless scrolling, even our emotions are part of the feed.
Sammy Tassone 
Monique B 
digginspaige