Why Older Women Love Young Adult Shows

This isn’t to say one can’t find great love later in life. In fact, first loves usually remain in our rearview mirror. But older love, while it can be just as exciting, usually comes with more complications. The only thing complicated about young love is if and where their first sexual encounter is going to take place.

In addition to romance, The Summer I Turned Pretty and other YA series explore matters such as finding oneself, discovering friends and forming an identity, themes which are relatable to all ages and that continue throughout our lives. They remind us of how we became who we are. Those of us lucky enough to still have our high school friends are reminded of how and why we clicked back in the day.

After the last episode aired, I craved more of the same and turned to my granddaughter and her friends for suggestions. All of the following YA shows provide an escape from today’s global situation and take us back to simpler times.

My Life With the Walter Boys

This popular young adult show premiered in 2023. Season 3 will air later in 2026. Not only is it focused on first love, it also has a storyline similar to The Summer I Turned Pretty. A teen girl is orphaned when her parents and sister are tragically killed, and she goes to live with a family of 12 boys. From the first scene we know she’s going to fall in love with one, if not two, of them. Woven into the family drama are desire and attraction and passionate first kisses.

Stranger Things

This show hits the trifecta. It’s set in the ’80s, before cellphones and social media. It has a sci-fi plot in which kids save the world. And it involves falling in love for the first time. Those of us who raised children in the ’80s can relate to the era of walkie-talkies and outside adventures. And while the fantastical elements in Stranger Things are off the charts, the love interests are down-to-earth. Even in the most dangerous of situations, the characters pause to express their true affection for one another. The finale aired last year, but Stranger Things continues to be one of the most popular streaming shows.

Outer Banks

The first episode of this show aired in 2020. Its fifth (and final) season is scheduled for 2026. It’s an action-adventure mystery set on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and follows the conflicts between two groups of teenagers in search of a lost treasure. Along with the adventure are a few common young adult romance tropes. There’s the classic one between a wealthy seasonal resident and a working-class local as well as a friends-to-lovers story.

Never Have I Ever

I have to say, never have I ever laughed so hard. This is a wonderful comedy following an overachieving Indian American teen as she navigates high school, friends and a love triangle while also grieving her father’s sudden death. There are a lot of laugh-out-loud scenes. It’s a perfect show to relieve stress. The final episode aired in 2023, but the series is still available for streaming.

Gossip Girl

This show premiered in 2007 and ran until 2012. To this day it continues to draw an audience. Gossip Girl centers on the lives of wealthy Manhattan teens on the Upper East Side. At times it seemed a bit exaggerated to me, but I’m not in that tax bracket and certainly wasn’t as a teenager. It is narrated by an anonymous blogger who exposes their secrets throughout the show. There’s family drama, love triangles and juicy twists and turns. Gossip Girl follows the characters a bit further in their lives than most young adult shows, as they graduate high school, attend college and move into adulthood.

No matter the decade, whether you were courted in a sitting room sipping tea under the watchful eye of a chaperone, making out in the back seat of a Chevy or texting from across the room, adolescent hormones are the same. Finding friends, fitting in and falling in love cross all generational boundaries.

Our teenage years were decades ago, when streaming involved a body of water. Now, thanks to the internet and Wi-Fi, we can stream a young adult show from the comfort of our living room. And for an hour or three, we can turn back time and feel hopeful for the future.

 AARP essays share a point of view in the author’s voice, drawn from expertise or experience, and do not necessarily reflect the views of AARP.​