‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Author Jenny Han on Becoming a Showrunner for the First Time: ‘It Was a Baptism by Fire’
variety.comDiane Garrett ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ Author Jenny Han on Becoming a Showrunner for the First Time: ‘It Was a Baptism by Fire’With the June 17 debut of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” Jenny Han’s career has taken another big leap forward.
The bestselling YA author of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” had a hands-on role in Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming adaptation of “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” her 2009 coming-of-age novel about a teenage girl, serving as creator and co-showrunner on the series. “It’s been a long time in the making,” says Han, who began writing YA novels in her early 20s. “There has been quite a lot of interest in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ over the years, but it never felt like the right fit because deep down I realized I wanted to do it myself.” But Han didn’t have any screenwriting experience at the time and ran into lingering resistance to authors adapting their own work.
That attitude began to ease, and Han made a deal to adapt “The Summer I Turned Pretty” before “To All the Boys” debuted on Netflix in 2018.
Greenlight secured for the Wiip Studios co-production with Amazon, Han set about updating the novel for contemporary audiences.
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