The series had initially started off as a fan-fiction about Harry Styles. The story was a classic girl meets Harry Styles, who is ‘complicated’, which attracts the girl for ‘reasons’. Eventually their mutual attraction wins out and they fall in love. More complications occur. They fight and make up. Classic ‘teenage/young adult’ love story. Add some sexy vampires and werewolves and you would probably get Twilight. Add some poorly written BDSM sex and you would definitely get the Fifty Shades Series. Anna Todd’s fan-fiction series have racked up over a billion reads online in Wattpad.
For the publication company Simon & Schuster, Tood had to change the name of her brooding male protagonist from Harry Styles to Hardin Scott, but still keeps his British accent and broody personality (from the books). The book series have gone on to become a hit young adult page-turner with 5 books, ending with Before (a prequel about Hardin ‘before’ meeting Tessa).
The first film After follows an 18-year old Tessa Young, who just graduated from high school and is settling in her new college. There, she meets a mysterious brooding young man named Hardin who teaches her to question everything she has ever know and to find out what she truly wants out of life.