NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n
Lola Tung<\/a> had an emotional experience when reading The Summer I Turned Pretty<\/a> book series.<\/p>\n The actress, who stars in the Prime Video adaptation of Jenny Han\u2019<\/a>s beloved book trilogy of the same name, spoke with Nylon Magazine<\/a> about her admiration for the series. Tung first read the books while attending\u00a0Carnegie Mellon University, before she dropped out to take on the role of title character Isabel “Belly” Conklin.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a really dramatic single tear that rolled down my cheek,\u201d Tung 22, said about finishing the trilogy. \u201cI love this world so much. If I wasn\u2019t in this show, I would watch this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Lola Tung in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’.<\/p>\n Dana Hawley\/Prime Video<\/p>\n Tung isn\u2019t alone, as devoted fans tune in every week to learn the fate of Belly and her love triangle with brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney<\/a>) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno<\/a>). But despite the show’s popularity, the actress still notices there’s a stigma that surrounds the young adult genre.\n<\/p>\n \u201cPeople do this thing where they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my God, it\u2019s embarrassing [that I like Summer because] I\u2019m 30,\u2019 and I\u2019m like, why is that embarrassing?\u201d Tung said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything embarrassing about liking the things you like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times YA is associated with women and female audiences, and that\u2019s why sometimes it gets pushed aside,\u201d she continued. \u201cEveryone should just feel things and stop being afraid of it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The actress also opened up to Nylon about the whirlwind experience of first joining the cast of The Summer I Turned Pretty \u2014 and how Han, who is also a showrunner on the TV series, encouraged her to start seeing a therapist when she felt too overwhelmed.\n<\/p>\n Lola Tung (right) and Jenny Han in June 2022.<\/p>\n Sean Zanni\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s helpful just to be able to talk to someone objectively about everything,\u201d Tung said.<\/p>\n Han, who also wrote the To All the Boys I\u2019ve Loved Before<\/a> trilogy, previously told PEOPLE that she\u2019d turned down<\/a> adaptation offers for The Summer I Turned Pretty until she could do it herself. The author later stated in an interview on the Wild Card with Rachel Martin<\/a> podcast that she felt she had a “responsibility\u201d to the novel’s fans<\/a>, particularly as a YA writer.\n<\/p>\n “I care about my readers,” Han said. “I would never want someone to read my book and then want to cause, like, self-harm or feel, like, deeply depressed after reading that … because they’re still a child. You know, you are responsible for them to some degree.”\n<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n