Any Tar Heel watching the teaser for the third and final season of Amazon’s wildly popular “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series will immediately recognize that Belly and Jeremiah are twirling under the moonlight on McCorkle Place. So what if they’re calling Carolina “Finch College” and putting it in Rhode Island?

The series, based on the young adult romance trilogy by Carolina distinguished alumna Jenny Han ’02, was already being filmed in North Carolina, in and around Wilmington, aka “Cousins Beach.” When main character Isabel “Belly” Conklin went to college, why wouldn’t she study and party on the same campus as her creator?

As location filming at Carolina and Chapel Hill wrapped in July 2024 for Season Three, which dropped July 16, The Well sat down with Han to talk about the experience.

Why did you want to film part of the “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series at Carolina?  

I think that Carolina is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. We were only a couple of hours away, so why not try? I was thrilled when the University said yes. So many of the cast and crew have said to me, “This is the most beautiful campus I’ve ever been on.” That makes me proud. I’m proud to show it off.

What has it been like filming at your alma mater?  

Filming at my old dorm, Old East, was definitely emotional. I was in the first class of women who were allowed to live there. I would lay out in the grass and listen to music and look up at the stars. It felt very romantic and nostalgic to come back and be able to shoot my show here.

All of our background actors, many of whom are students, have been wonderful.

How is the campus the same as you remember and how is it different? 

I’ve been back several times since I graduated, and it feels the same to me. It still feels like home. Even some of the old restaurants are still on Franklin Street, which is really unique and special.

How did your experiences at Carolina influence how you imagined college for Belly? 

Belly goes to Finch, a smaller school in the northeast, but I always imagined it with the classic collegiate charm Carolina has. It’s somewhere you want to spend time. Carolina is a place that supports and fosters young people’s dreams, and I wanted to give Belly that college experience.

The first two seasons of the series have seen plot twists different from the books. Why did you decide to update the books?  

They came out 15 years ago, and I wrote them in my mid-20s. The way I approached the show was “What if I were to write the story today?” For me as a storyteller, I wanted to adapt the books faithfully but also find new ways in story that felt creatively exciting. The most fun part for me is being able to bring to life scenes that my readers have been waiting to see but also getting to surprise them as well. I like to surprise and delight my audience.

What is it like being the writer and showrunner for a series based on your books?  

With TV, the showrunner ultimately decides how the show is going to turn out because you’re there from the beginning to the end. You’re writing the episodes along with your writers’ room, and you’re there the whole time as you’re making the show. And you have directors come in to direct their episode. But ultimately you hold the keys to the whole story.