The maiden’s longing 𖧷
Ok, so I know many of you (myself included) are currently caught up in the wildly popular show The Summer I Turned Pretty. So I thought it fitting that we explore The Maiden Archetype through the lens of this story.
Even if you’ve never watched the show (perhaps you’ve only caught glimpses on socials, or you’ve never heard of it at all)…
there’s something in this blog for everyone ✨
(at the end, I share simple somatic ways to embody your Maiden self in daily life ↓↓)
Because beneath the surface of young romance stories lie themes as old as myth itself:
the loss of innocence, the tender thresholds of coming-of-age, the reclamation of The Maiden, and how we can tend to her in ourselves through both soul and somatic practice.
I like to reflect when shows like this become widely admired, as there’s usually a deeper (and often unseen) truth as to why SO many people are SO simultaneously entranced.
Part of why I think The Summer I Turned Pretty is casting such a spell on older Gen Zs, Millennials, and even some Gen X women right now is because for many of us, our Maidenhood was never truly seen, honoured, or ritualized.
Or, it was stolen pre-maturely in shadowy ways.
Watching the show allows some form of living out that archetype vicariously through a character who truly embodies the multi-faceted nature of The Maiden. There’s a joy in being able to experience the dreamy fullness of Maidenhood, without personal consequence, simply through witnessing as a viewer.
The Maiden is an archetype alive in our very own nervous systems. She holds innocence, playfulness, naivety, desire, curiosity, vulnerability, and potential. But when the thresholds of her journey — entering Maidenhood (first bleed, first love, first sexual experience) or leaving it (stepping into womanhood, motherhood, or sovereignty) — aren’t witnessed and honoured with care, she can feel incomplete, suspended, or even stolen within us.
For me, the central core of my own Maiden years carried shadows that cut the ripeness short, interrupted at its peak. Between being my mother’s primary caregiver when she was horribly ill and hospitalized with an aggressive cancer when I was just 16-years-old, to a sexual violation at the hands of my best friend’s brother at 18, and the devastating death of my first true love to a tragic boating accident just about a year after we had parted ways at 20… and more.
These moments fractured what could have been a soft, tender ripening. They rushed me out of Maidenhood before I could fully taste her sweetness.
Perhaps part of why so many of us are utterly enchanted by The Summer I Turned Pretty right now is because Belly (the main character) offers us something we missed: that season of ripening, sweetness, heartbreak, and first love. It’s a season that many of us never got to fully inhabit, in the safety, joy, and wholeness it so deserved. For some, it was stolen too soon by trauma, shame, parentification, over-responsibility, assault, or cultural conditioning that rushed you toward adulthood before you could revel in that juicy, playful stage.
✨🍑 The Peaches Scene (3mins) in particular shows Belly as the Maiden in her most mythic form: a Persephone of summer.
She’s lost in the unselfconscious, innocent, blissful enjoyment of devouring the ripest peaches… droplets of juice running down her chin, and naivety radiating from every gesture. She’s so completely surrendered to present moment enjoyment, that she’s unaware of her Maiden allure, and more so of the spell she’s casting on Conrad (one of the main male characters), stirring a longing within him.
Like Persephone with the pomegranate, the peach becomes an archetypal symbol of the Maiden: a pure, innocent, naïve surrender to life’s sweetness.
At the same time, her Maidenhood isn’t untouched; it’s textured, carrying both innocence and shadow. Even after losing one of the most important people in her life (Susannah) to death, Belly somehow holds onto enough of her Maidenhood to embody that perfect balance between purity and confronting coming-of-age thresholds.
This is what makes her so luminous: she is both ripening and still innocent, carrying the ache of grief and confusion around desire, but also still living out the fullness of delight and love. Her character shows us that even when innocence is fractured, the Maiden can still bloom… not through untouched purity, but in the bittersweet nature of becoming.
Within her, I glimpse what so many of us lost, and what so many of us long to re-member.
Maybe that’s why this show feels like more than a young romance drama. When we watch the embodiment of naivety and unguarded joy, we can feel both ache and wonder. It’s an archetypal re-living, a place where our nervous systems get to touch what was once withheld or taken from us too soon. Yet also, a sacred reminder of what can still be reclaimed.
The Maiden is not gone from us, no matter how abruptly she might have been interrupted. She lives inside our bodies and our souls, waiting for recognition.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions I see around the archetypes that show up across the arc of a woman’s life, is the idea that you must say goodbye to one archetype in order to step fully into the next. For example, the misconception that you must completely leave your Maiden behind to become a Mother or a Woman.
In reality, these archetypes aren’t linear or mutually exclusive. They act as building blocks, layering on top of one another, coexisting harmoniously as the sacred, multi-dimensional, and beautifully complex parts that make up who you are.
↓See below for a beautiful list of ways you can embody your Maiden↓ ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
Ways to Embody & Tend to Your Maiden Self
Mirror Tending: Place a photo of yourself from your Maiden years (maybe high school, late teens, or early 20s) on your mirror. When you can, pause to look into her eyes and greet her. Offer her a smile or a symbol of your love for her. Let her know she belongs.
Pleasure in the Small Things: Let yourself be consumed by something simple and sweet, the way Belly is with her peaches. Eat fruit with presence, pick wildflowers, dance in your room with no agenda. Maiden energy thrives in innocent delight and unselfconscious joy.
Ritualizing the Thresholds: If your Maidenhood was never honoured, you can create a ritual now. Light a candle, journal, or create a small altar to her. Name aloud the ways she was interrupted, and bless her with what she deserved to receive. Ritual has a way of repairing what the nervous system holds as incomplete.
Movement and Voice: Move in ways that feel playful, expressive, even a little naïve. Roll on the floor, skip, sing loudly in the car. See if you can let your body express without the weight of perfection or performance. Maiden energy is alive, unguarded, and curious.
Sisterhood and Witnessing: The Maiden longs to be seen in her bloom. Share a story, a memory, or even a photo from your younger self with a trusted friend or circle. Let her be witnessed and celebrated now, even if she wasn’t then.
This part of the mystery we explore in the embodiment work I facilitate, where the body becomes an instrument through which you can embody, reclaim, and re-embody these archetypes no matter where you are on your journey. You don’t have to lose any part of yourself to grow; you can honour each piece, letting them shine together in all their richness.