Every romantic movie seems to follow some kind of formula.

There are so many similarities between the most popular ones, but are they just cliches, or do they happen in real life? Some of the most common cliches include a major transformation of the female character, bets being placed on various characters, and enemies turning into romantic interests.

These scenarios put unrealistic expectations of romance into young people’s minds. So many teens set such high expectations for their love life, that they feel they will never be satisfied. 

Some very popular romance/rom-coms include: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless, The Duff, Love Simon and The Notebook, just to name a few. These movies are all nice to watch, but they also tend to make some of us sad.

In Clueless and The Duff, one of the female characters feels the need to change themselves. This is NOT true in real life. No one should believe that they need to change who they are just for someone to like them. If they don’t like you for who you are, they’re not worth it.

In 10 Things I Hate About You, among many other examples, focuses on some of the main male characters placing bets on a female character. These bets are usually about trying to get the female character more “desirable”. They want to humiliate her by making her fall for the guy that is only nice to her because of a bet, however it usually goes both ways.

The male character usually ends up falling for her too. Also, many movies share a common cliche of enemies turning into romantic interests. Are these realistic? In some cases, maybe.

Out of all the couples in the world, some probably began in unusual circumstances. Don’t get discouraged, everything will eventually fall into place.