TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE: The Evolution Of The YA Genre

John Hughes helped define the coming-of-age genre, sculpting it into something with true resonance during the 1980’s. But that’s not to say his films, like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, were completely without their share of blemishes. More than 30 years later and we’re still trying to work through some of the images he propagated.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is a testament to many things, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help thinking we have come a long way since Long Duk Dong. We got a taste of it a couple years ago in Edge of Seventeen where an Asian character (in that case Hayden Szeto) was allowed to exist outside the range of a vague stereotype. Past blots on the genre were finally being laid to rest.

A New Take on an Old Heroine

Here is a story based on Jenny Han‘s best-selling young adult novel that allows an Asian-American teenager to command the spotlight as she reluctantly foregoes the anonymity that normally comes with keeping a low profile and being a normal straight-A student. Her world and the multicultural family she’s a part of looks more like one that I’m used to, with two loving sisters and a genial father (John Corbett). The fact that he looks different than them isn’t a surprise because he’s just their dad and he loves them dearly. That’s all that matters. It’s part of the accepted status quo.

Lana Condor gives an instantly winsome performance as Lara Jean Song Covey, a high school junior who has always viewed love through the lens of daydreams and fantasy. That changes when five love letters she injudiciously wrote and addressed to five different boys she once had crushes on all get sent out to their various recipients mysteriously.

The story spins on the dazzling narrative device which thankfully proves more than a gimmick. There are fleeting moments that recall Me & Earl and The Dying Girl, 10 Things I Hate About You, even Scott Pilgrim vs The World without the quirky video game aesthetic and the scorned Asian girlfriend. Where high school romance seems almost like a game and figuring out who we are as a human being gets unbearably angsty. And sure, we have other hallmarks like introspective voiceover and endearing cultural references, but there still manages to be a surprising candor found throughout.

More Than a Gimmick

Her life begins to crumble on that fateful day where she sheds her invisibility before somehow settling into a weird equilibrium as she enters a faux relationship with perks. She and one of her dream boys, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), form an agreement to pretend to be a couple. He will pick Lara Jean and her spunky little sister (Anna Cathcart) up for school every morning (she’s deathly afraid of driving). They will attend social events together. And hopefully, all of this will make the resident hottie, and Kavinksy’s ex-girlfriend, Genevieve (Emilija Baranac) jealous. It’s all set to culminate in the annual ski trip notorious for igniting teenage passion. Again, to spell it out this way runs the risk of making it still feel like a gimmick.

Some like me might prick their ears hearing the voice of Betty White and then recognizing Golden Girls reruns on television. Other references feel a little more forced. For instance, the fake couple trades must-see favorite movies, Sixteen Candles for Fight Club, as they shake on their contractual agreement.

Or in a quiet interlude shared between a father and his little girl, he opens up about her deceased mother’s favorite song, “Everybody Want to Rule The World” by Tears for Fears. Subsequently, they let its melancholy waft over them in their beloved local diner. We’ve written this scene in our heads countless times before, no doubt.

The true moments to relish are when the normal beats come and go and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before then gets into the awkward in-betweens that twist you in knots. You want to laugh and cringe all at the same time. Life implodes when your fake boyfriend, your sister (Janel Parrish) recently home from college, and her ex (Israel Broussard) who you shared feelings for (and a letter with) all wind up in the same place at the same time. As a result, feelings are hurt and miscommunication abounds, stoking the flames of the story.

Unearthing Surprising Depth

The initial motif is that love is something that we can enjoy reading about, writing about, dreaming about, or even watching in our favorite movies. I am one of those romantic idealists from time to time so I can say this. But love in real life is a scary proposition. Perhaps especially when you’re young and inexperienced, because you live with a mentality of not wanting to mess it up. You exist continually paralyzed by fear. Caring so deeply what your peers will think. After all, you only have one life. Why ruin it heedlessly?

In one sincere admission Lara Jean admits, “The more people you let in, the more people can walk out of your life.” She doesn’t want that and so she’s never had a boyfriend. And then we see the teenage turmoil in her life and the hurt feelings as she’s thrust into a scenario she would have never imagined in a million years. Can all this be worth it? Emphatically, yes it can be.

While it does not necessarily get easier for everyone, there comes a time when most people realize that mistakes are a persistent part of life. They push us out of our comfort zone and bring us to avenues of growth and maturity that we would have never discovered any other way. Moreover, it’s just possible that your ability to actually acknowledge your true feelings and hear other people out will ultimately lead you toward living life as a fuller, happier version of yourself.

Conclusions: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Because To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before makes for an instantly humorous elevator pitch. But getting beyond that is what’s imperative for its very success. I like that we have a jock who looks like the stereotype and yet doesn’t act like it. He actually has feelings and thoughtfulness and personal tragedy that he’s attempting to cull through. Or how we have a “Mean Girl” who’s actually somewhat sensitive, still harboring a past hurt from years prior that others never realized. Even Lara Jean’s fear of driving or worse yet, the fear of ruining her relationship with her big sister, all have a real weight to them.

I like being pleasantly surprised by stories that generally exceed my meager expectations. There is nothing mean-spirited or pernicious in its content. Just a thoroughly sweet, at times hysterically funny narrative that manages a certain amount of endearing authenticity. For some that might be unimaginative, even off-putting, but for others it’s quite an appealing gift once it sheds the exterior to let us get at its heart. And Lana Condor is a gem.

In what other ways have coming-of-age narratives evolved in the last 30 years or so since John Hughes’ movies? How have the common characters and archetypes changed over the ensuing years?

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before will be released through Netflix on August 17, 2018.