To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the first movie to feature an Asian-American female teen that I can relate to. We’ve all seen the stereotypical kung-fu fighting, nerdy token Asian in just about every single movie that has featured an Asian character (Jackie Chan in ‘The Spy Next Door’ for example), but unfortunately, I am not a third-degree black belt. I’m very immersed into American culture and the way of living, so growing up I didn’t feel the lack of representation that Asian-Americans have in media and on the big screen. It wasn’t until I watched “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” that I realized “wow I’ve never felt more connected to a fictional character before.”

The main character, Lara Jean, comes from a mixed Korean/Caucasian background, and she lives with her father and two sisters. The actresses don’t all come from the same ethnic background, but I’m able to look past that because at least they are all Asian- unlike past movies which have had serious white-washing problems. The premise of the movie revolves around 5 love letters that Lara Jean writes when she has “a crush so intense” she doesn’t know what else to do. Her younger sister, Kitty, sends them out and that is when Lara Jean’s love story starts.

While I have never written any love letters, I can relate to Lara Jean’s shyer, more conservative personality. It’s difficult to specify and generalize a whole race when it comes to love, but Asian females typically have a more conservative approach to it. Lara Jean conveys the perfect balance between forward and modest. As Peter Kavinsky, her love interest, said to Lara Jean, “for someone who’s quiet all the time, you have a lot of opinions,” which kind of sums it up.

Of course, Lara Jean says things relatable to most teenage girls, regardless of race. “I always thought no one was paying attention to what I was doing, that the only drama in my life was in my head, but it turns out that I wasn’t as invisible as I thought,” was a quote that personally stuck with me and to others that I’ve gushed over the movie about.

Peter Kavinsky is a whole other topic for a whole other article. While I’m not focusing on him, I also can’t just ignore the fact that he’s basically perfect. Enough said.

There was one moment when Peter first met Kitty, Lara Jean’s younger sister, and Kitty offered him a ‘Korean yogurt smoothie’ to which his response was “Oh, wow. That is really good.” That yogurt drink was my childhood. It was always a special treat when my mom would buy those from the Korean grocery store, even though the Korean grocery store wasn’t all the way across town like in the movie. It’s the little things in To all the Boys I’ve Ever Loved, like that drink, that made me fully realize how I never had anyone to relate to on the big screen growing up. For once, it’s nice to see that change.