Any fan ofThe Year I Became Teenage(whether they are part of its original teenage demographic, or a large adult audience) will attest that it’s perfectescapist TV. Although the characters’ coming-of-age activities are sufficient to help you momentarily ignore your real-life issues every Wednesday, it’s the show’s environments that truly enhance its immersive quality.
The initial two seasons of the highly acclaimed Prime Video series were primarily set in Cousins Beach: a fictional, wealthy location.seaside townWhere Isabel “Belly” Conklin and her family spend their summers with their friends, the Fishers. The series focuses on Belly (Lola Tung) as she transitions from being a teenager to an adult—and deals with a love triangle involving the two Fisher brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). In the third and final season, which is currently being broadcast, the characters’ lives grow broader, as shown through various locations and individual storylines in the initial episodes.
Continuing with the book series by Jenny Han, mostThe Year I Became a Teenageroccurs in New England. Cousin is suggested to be aCape Cod-esqueBeach town in Massachusetts where theBoston-basedThe Fisher family spends their summers. Belly goes to a fictional college in Rhode Island with Jeremiah in season 3. However, most of the show is filmed in and around Wilmington, North Carolina.
When asked if she had a specific coastal town in mind while writingThe Summer I Turned Pretty,Han told the Prime Video Book ClubThat Cousins represents the merging of all the East Coast beaches she knows, such as Nags Head and Virginia Beach, which she visited throughout her childhood, Cape Cod, where she spent time while working for a family (the daughter of which inspired Belly’s character, in part), and theHamptons, which she often visited while working on the first book in the series. “I believe that’s one of the reasons why readers can pick up the book and feel like it’s their beach,” she remarked.
While we all value the series for its widely heartfeltsummer vibes, we still need the specifics on where, precisely, it was filmed. Here’s all the information we discovered about the most well-known and iconic filming locations inThe Year I Became a Teenager.
The Beach House
The real beach house featured in the production is situated on a golf course in Wilmington’sPorters Neck Plantation, but location manager Lindsay Fort statedPEOPLEa strong dose of New England charm was essential for the Fishers’ lakeside home: “It needed that cedar shake because [Han] wanted that Cape Cod Northeast style,” she mentioned. Fort also remembers taking out palm trees and replacing them with hydrangea plants, a fact confirmed by Season 1 production designer Teresa Mastropierro: “Our landscaping team completely changed the area around the house. I think we bought every single hydrangea in the state,” she said.House Beautiful.
Set decorator Beth Robinson aimed to create a feeling of unity between the home’s magnificent, yet cozy outside and its interior design. During the same HB interview, she mentioned that she desired areas for gatherings that didn’t come off as “elitist, but instead warm and inviting… the kind of place where you can enter from the beach and rest your sandy feet on the”coffee table.” Robinson achieved harmony by integrating vintage elements, warm, creamy tones, green, and coral hues instead of vivid whites, along with a cozy, natural countertop disarray.”
The Beaches
The “Cousins” shoreline serves as the setting for several of the show’s most unforgettable moments—such as bonfires, intense arguments, and declarations of love. The real beaches featured in the show are located along the southeastern coast of North Carolina, according toTown & Country. Scenes are shot at the popular surfing locationWrightsville Beach, the more private-feeling Kure Beach, and at the boardwalk ofCarolina Beach.
The Country Club
The Cousins Beach Country Club has remained a key participant throughoutThe Year I Became a TeenagerAs a provider of summer employment, the location of Belly’s debutante ball in season 1, and a spontaneous overnight shelter for the group in season 2. It remains uncertain if this location will make a return in the ongoing season (though with an engagement storyline, it’s possible).PEOPLE pinpointed the Cape Fear Country Clubthe oldest independent gold club in North Carolina served as the filming location for these scenes, with some interior shots using rooms from St. Mary Catholic School in Wilmington.
Finch College
The series features a four-year time leap from season two to season three, meaning that instead of revisiting Cousins with a high school-aged Belly during summer vacation, we were immediately placed in her college setting: imagine messy dorm rooms, brightly lit fraternity houses, and twisting campus pathways. The fictional Finch College is inRhode Island—a brief trip from Brown, as we discover in season two, where Conrad spent his first year—but the campus scenes were filmed at author Jenny Han’s former university: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Shooting at my old dorm, Old East, was truly heartfelt,” she mentioned during aninterview with the schoolIt was very romantic and nostalgic to return and have the opportunity to film my show here.
The Restaurant (fromthatSeason 3 Announcement)
A widely shared (and mocked) scene from last week’s episode shows most of the main cast together at a restaurant for lunch, where—spoiler alert—Belly reveals her engagement to Jeremiah. An outside solo shot of a sad Conrad shows the restaurant to beOceanica well-known coastal seafood restaurant in Wrightsville Beach.
Even though it hasn’t been officially verified that the restaurant’s interior was used for the scene, you can still order your own seafood tower at the place where Belly proudly showed off her engagement ring (and we all have to admit, we looked closely).
