By Miranda Ortea and Gabriella Licona

Anna Todd’s After series is known for its mediocre writing on teen romance and drama, starring Hardin, the bad boy, and his love interest, Tessa. The published books’ origin starts at a Harry Styles fanfiction on the free writing platform Wattpad. The series is mainly known for its romanticization of the toxic main couple, which the author herself has gone so far as to dub “Relationship Goals.”

Published on Wattpad in 2013, the erotica novel series features three books, which have accumulated over one billion reads on the website to this date. Fans of British-Irish boy group One Direction made it a sensation within the early-teen and teenage age group.

It’s growing popularity and massive success led Anna Todd to publish an edited version of the series with Simon & Schuster. The edited version included four books, a change in the names of the characters based off One Direction members to avoid privacy and publication violations, and new covers. Todd’s literary career soared as she became a New York Times internationally bestselling author, and was called “the biggest literary phenomenon of her generation,” by Cosmopolitan.

After follows the story of college freshman Tessa Young and the changes in her life when she meets a brooding troublemaker named Harry Styles, or Hardin Scott in the published version. The two fall under the popular good girl and bad boy romantic trope, demonstrating a polar opposite portrayal of Harry Styles.

As an erotica novel, the series is not short of X-rated content and includes recurring themes such as criticism towards promiscuity, substance and alcohol abuse, violence, sexual context, and several other triggering themes. Like many Wattpad stories, After is filled with angst and adverse subjects that teens today are able to explore through social media and the internet. Although an understanding of these topics and circumstances should be shared with growing teens, After takes it over the top by promoting the ideas throughout the novel.

The novel’s targeted audience is sixteen and up; however, the average reader is anywhere from eleven to fifteen. Younger fans of Harry Styles are capable of reading this series, then proceed to take these themes and establish them in their relationships. Those that argue against the premise of the series believe that the younger audience will believe that the relationship between Harry/Hardin and Tessa is what all relationships are like, and fall prey to the false idea of romance established in the series.

At the start of the series, Tessa is dating a well-rounded boy that she grew up with, named Noah, that she loves dearly–as she states many times. In one of the earlier chapters of the first book, Tessa claims that she and Noah have not achieved many physical milestones aside from making out, but she is still faithful towards him; that is until Hardin walks into her life. Throughout the first half of the first book, Tessa cheats on Noah with Hardin, knowing that her actions are wrong and harmful.

Like many Wattpad stories with a similar plot, the ‘couple’ undergoes the silent treatment and break-ups, arguing back-and-forth and resolving their issues with sex. Hardin and Tessa’s relationship is nowhere near common and innocent: Hardin often goes on angered rampages fueled by his short temper and alcohol. He throws items across the room and punches walls multiple times in the series. At one point, Tessa goes on to even admit that she had been concerned that Hardin would slap her out of rage.

Though Hardin never physically abuses Tessa, she doesn’t hesitate in hitting him. She slaps Hardin whenever he angers her, and she feels the need to control every aspect of his life, to know where he is and what he is doing at all times.

Their separations are usually short-term, and it is unsurprising to readers when Tessa and Hardin get back together again. Tessa’s urge to always run back to Hardin’s arms is a clear symbol of her dependency on him, demonstrating an obviously toxic relationship. It is even more toxic when considering a statement Hardin makes in the first book, where he tells Tessa that he should be able to have her whenever he wants, regardless if she is upset with him or establishing a romantic relationship with someone else.

While the series is a work of fiction, and authors have the freedom to write what they please, many argue that Anna Todd truly believes in her own content. She has gone to her social media multiple times where she posts “Everyone wants a Hardin in their life.” Anna Todd promotes Tessa and Hardin’s relationship and considers it to be true love and realistic, neglecting the obvious evidence of abuse between the two characters.

On July 2018, Anna Todd took to Twitter to announce that she and Aviron Pictures would begin casting efforts, and on November 2018, the main actors of the film were revealed, along with the first movie trailers.

After will be released in theaters for its first movie on April 12, starring Josephine Langford as Tessa Young and Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as Hardin Scott. As the announcement of its film was tweeted by the book author herself, many fans could not contain their excitement. However, those who oppose the idea of another cliche Wattpad story becoming a movie have shared their concerns.