INTERLUDE ESSAY: "The Summer I Turned Pretty" and unlikeability

Welcome to From the Mind of Karis, a monthly update & essay newsletter from author, freelance editor, and podcaster Karis Rogerson. It’s lovely to have you here! This is an out-of-schedule interlude essay that I hope you enjoy. You may want to read read this in your browser for best results, but follow your peace and read it in your inbox if you prefer! <3

Hello my loves 😍 

I hope you’re all doing so well. I’ve been struggling for the past week and a half, but I finally felt the brain-stirrings of creativity and the desire to put words on a page, so here we are — a special out-of-schedule interlude newsletter!

Before we dive into the essay, I need to say something. This weekend, the Trump administration has made it exceedingly clear that their next targets are trans people — you know, one of the most marginalized, already-oppressed demographics out there. It breaks my heart and kindles my rage, the same way ICE raids & deportations have done since February, the same way Israeli strikes in Gaza have done for two years, the same way so many other things enrage me. I feel powerless and useless in the fight to come, to be honest, but the truth is that I’m not. I may not know yet what my role is, but I will find it, and I will throw myself into it.

This fascist administration WILL be brought down.

And now, to the essay —

Unlikeability in female characters 👧 ¹

Belly Conklin is my best girl.

I realized within a few moments of watching the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, which I finally tuned into literally THIS YEAR, that Belly was going to be special to me. When we meet her, she’s 15-going-on-16, she’s just had a sophomore-year glow-up, and she’s in love with Conrad Fisher.

Swiftly, we begin to learn about Belly. She’s competitive and athletic, confident even when she’s in a new, uncertain, situation, and she has this longing — aching, heart-breaking — for someone to love her like she loves Conrad.

And so we kick off three seasons of pure, unadulterated mess.

Belly pines after Conrad; goes out with Cam Cameron; kisses Jeremiah; kisses Conrad; breaks with Conrad; dates Conrad; breaks up with Conrad; kisses Jeremiah; dates Jeremiah; loves Conrad; loves Jeremiah.

Some of the choices she makes are shitty and hurt the people she loves, including her best friend, Taylor, and her brother, Steven. Some of them are understandable because girl, same, and some of them have me scratching my head in confusion because girl, I would never.

And yet — and yet I love her. I want to hold her carefully in a cup made of my own hands and protect her from the people on the Internet who would hate her even more than they already do if she were real. I personally never had a true problem with the whole “dating brothers” thing, probably cause I had already devoured all of The Vampire Diaries before I ever read the TSITP books, but also probably because I can’t lie and say I’ve never dreamed of being so beautiful, so sparkling, so beloved that I just attracted everyone who saw me, everyone who met me.

Belly has flaws, I can see that. She hurts people, she can be selfish, she makes impulsive decisions and leaves her loved ones to pick up the pieces.

And yet.

I love Belly not in spite of her flaws, her spikes, the ugly sides of her; I love her because of them. Because they make her real, they make her vibrant, they make her pop off the screen and straight to my heart.

I don’t know if a real-live human with a personality like Belly Conklin’s would actually get along with me, or vice versa. Maybe we’d clash and butt heads and I’d roll my eyes and she’d fail to understand my insecurities and hang-ups.

But I love her in the show. And I love Jenny Han and Lola Tung for giving her to us — this beautiful, sometimes unlikeable, so painfully real girl who is at the head of this series and franchise.

There’s something powerful and reclamatory about that, idk. Like they’re saying — you don’t have to be perfect to be deserving. You don’t have to be a sponge to be deserving. You don’t have to have a paper-thin personality that anyone can imprint their own selves upon to be deserving. You, the way that you are now, the beautiful and the imperfect — you are deserving.

Yeah, people hate Belly. I think she’s kind of impossible to imprint upon; like you can’t self-insert your way into being the main character of The Summer I Turned Pretty. That’s fully Belly’s role. And may she live long and happy for it!

Alla prossima 👋 

Before I sign off, here’s a cute heads-up that the second episode of the second season of my podcast aired last Monday! We spoke with Shelly Jay Shore about the HEA in romance, and it was a great conversation — if I do say so myself!

I leave you with this photo of me in front of a delectable plate of food. Happy Sunday, all!

1  Fair warning that light spoilers for the general plot of the first two seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty TV show may appear.