Have lots of fun! Believe in yourself!’ Legally Blonde is back – as a life-affirming TV prequel | Television

MeIf there’s a young romantic on TV, we millennial women are going to watch it. Throw in a love triangle or a hockey player who is interested and openly talks about acceptance, and you’ve got yourself a traditional formula. Cover yourself in girlish desire and give it to us every summer to let our inner teenager swoon.

Dramas about teenage girls are on the rise in 2026, with love stories reminiscent of a Taylor Swift song that leave viewers obsessed with boys half their age. Off Campus hockey romances or romantic comedy dramas Every Year After take a heartwarming song and add the pain of years, friendship drama and friendship struggles.

Last summer, 25 million viewers tuned in to see how the love triangle about two brothers played out, with The Summer I Turned Pretty drawing big numbers for the first two episodes of its third and final season. The New York Times reported that the audience for the adaptation of Jenny Han’s best-selling book was mainly women between the ages of 25-55 – not the “teenagers” that Han was categorized as.

Girl cult group Legally Blonde is the latest to receive youth support. Its new ’90s-set prequel series follows Elle Woods as a teenager in high school to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the film. Elle starts as it means to continue, she washed her head to the pinky toe that Barbie would be proud of. Opening with a fun sixteenth birthday bash, it’s a world where the school has the most fashionable girl groups, fancy car phones, interesting wardrobes and handsome boys.

At the age of 16, Elle Woods (played by unknown actress Lexi Minetree) said that she “knows exactly who she is and what she wants.” A five-year plan? Sorted. The perfect first kiss? He is laying the foundation. His friends? Everything is ready. With that youthful naivety of being ignorant of the realities of femininity, Elle thrives in her safe, grounded girlhood. It was then that her father got a high-profile nose job and moved the family to Seattle, the gray city of Twilight. A devotee of color, the charm of California and small stories, Elle is thrown from her Barbie dreamhouse to a world full of hoodies, calling for social justice and a great hatred of blond girls who think “pink is humanity”.

The show exists thanks to the original Elle Woods – Reese Witherspoon. She felt that “the world could use a little more Elle Woods” – all determination and positivity – and her insight into the character helped the production team create the show.

“It’s always fun to explore life as a teenager,” says Lauren Neustadter, president of film and television at Witherspoon’s company, Hello Sunshine. “We’ve all been there.”

Not all teenage years were like this, however. Elle’s ’90s and Y2K obsession isn’t just about mini skirts, baby tees and car phones. It is also a reminder of the girlhood of the digital age – there is no culture of red pills, social networks or worries about pornographic images that are distributed on the Internet. Elle takes us back to a simpler, carefree time of all the wasted moments on the popular kid, big friendship groups and the security of knowing that everything will work out in the end.

“How nice would it be if we all went back and said (to our teenager) ‘it’s okay. Have a lot of fun here. Believe in yourself,'” said Caroline Dries, who is the head of the book. “This is our way of doing it.”

Reconnecting with that era isn’t just fun for millennial viewers — writers felt the same way. “When we were doing this, we were reminiscing about all the important moments we had in high school,” Dries said. “It just shows how important that time was in our lives.”

Just as Legal Blonde was the cornerstone of the project, creator Laura Kittrell also brought out her favorite TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, hoping to capture “a real sense of real youth, but also have a lot of humor and be the last fish in the water”. She was also inspired by 2000s classics like 10 Things I Hate About You, 90210 and Mean Girls (“(it’s) always in my heart”).

Kittrell says: “High school is just the beginning, so now that we know who Elle Woods is, it’s fun to watch those first moments. The first kiss, the first crush, the first love. We were really inspired by the moment in the movie when Elle shows up at the party in a bunny costume and she walks in and there’s a little moment of embarrassment for us to blush, and then we blush. We wanted to repeat the first time she was so embarrassed.”

As our favorite Harvard lawyer-to-be struggles with the obvious, inspiration is put into this series to deal with the overwhelming pressure of those who feel it’s all done. Of course, we can’t come home from school and end it all with a hug from our moms, but Kittrell hopes that Elle’s visit will emphasize to girls and women that “you’re not alone, everyone feels this way and it’s okay to feel this way.”

Girls’ problems are often treated with disdain, belittled – or removed from their stories. But the end of relationships, the first time, difficult encounters with boys can be difficult and frustrating – something that the creators of Elle feel should be acknowledged.

“A lot of youth shows are very high-profile, and there’s a place for that,” Kittrell said. “For us, it was always important that the issues that Elle is dealing with are real issues for young people, because they’re things that we can relate to, and they need to be given the right weight.”

Created as a “love letter to the next generation” of girls, Elle is also a love letter to the youth of the creator, and all the millennials who lived and loved the humor, heart and affirmation that these young films gave them. “If I had lived (the girl) again through the confidence I have now, as a child, would I be a different person?”, says Dries on the question he struggled with. “Wouldn’t I face those difficulties?”

Ultimately, though, the show isn’t all about escapism. It is rooted in an inspirational message. “How did Reese (as Elle) help women become lawyers?” asks Dries. “Even if it’s just one person, as bright as this, who feels like he’s his own, it’s an amazing role.”

These inspiring stories of young women who overcame the challenges faced by millennial women resonate with all of us. Maybe he can do something important. Maybe they can inspire us to reconnect with a younger, younger version of us who doesn’t just believe in love — but the most important part of us, too.

Elle is on Prime Video on Wednesdays.