'Famous in Love' Author Rebecca Serle Opens Up About Writing the Show With Marlene King

Rebecca Serle, the woman behind the Famous in Love novels, is also a writer on the highly-anticipated upcoming television adaptation.

In fact, she told us that she always planned to make a movie or TV show out of the idea.

“I was over at one of my really good friend’s house and I was flipping through this magazine,” Rebecca explained. “There was a photo of Katie Holmes and honestly, it may have with been Tom Cruise. She may have still been married. This was seven years ago. I was reminiscing with this friend about obsessed I was with [Dawson's Creek couple] Pacey and Joey, and them dating in real life, and their characters falling in love on screen – and sort of that dialogue between fiction and reality. And I just stopped, and looked at my friend, and we were both like, ‘That’s a book.’”

“It was always a dream of mine to create a show and contribute to this space,” she told us. “I was obsessed with teen content growing up. I grew up on shows like Dawson’s Creek and Roswell, and moved on to Gilmore Girls. I felt like those characters were really my friends in moments that were challenging in adolescence. I just think it’s really cool to create content for people who are becoming adults. It’s really fun. I remember when Alex died on Roswell, I was inconsolable. It felt like I had really lost a friend. Television is so intimate – you invite people into your home. They sit with you week after week after week. You’re so invested over the course of many years.”

So, Rebecca wrote the pilot script and gave it to Pretty Little Liars showrunner Marlene King, with whom she now works on the series.

“I was a fan of Pretty Little Liars and she’s obviously done really amazing things in that YA space,” Rebecca said. “It was super educational. Shes definitely a powerhouse. Pretty Little Liars has something like the biggest social media presence…it’s a total phenomenon. I think if we can have a tenth of the success that they’ve had in that space, we’d be very happy.”

Famous in Love premieres TONIGHT, April 18 @ 9/8c on Freeform.

In case you missed it, find out what Rebecca told us about the killer cast!

- Reporting by Sharon Tharp (@sharontharp)