The ‘Paper Towns’ trailer exactly captures the magic of being a teenager

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that captures the magic of being a teenager. Now, don’t get me wrong, being a teenager isn’t a wholly magical experience. Sometimes it sucks. There’s devastating heartbreak and inescapable stress and excruciating boredom and seemingly-unanswerable (and unending) questions. Being a teenager is a lot of things, some of them good and some of them bad and some of them terrible and some of them wonderful.

The magic, that’s one of the wonderful parts. You don’t even necessarily notice the magic until it’s over, but in between all of the structured and stressful moments, there are fleeting moments of freedom and reckless abandon and, in those moments, lives the magic. And Paper Towns, the latest YA book-to-movie adaptation from the brilliant John Green, also lives in that pocket of magic. The story, which centers on high school student Q and his personal miracle, Margo Roth Spiegelman, is the kind of mix of mystery and adventure that will give you butterflies and make you nostalgic for something intangible.

The trailer premiered this morning on TODAY and John Green spilled his take on the story and what it’s capital-A About (which, you know, might be more accurate than my crazy/intangible take). “It’s a story about all different kinds of love, not just romantic love, but also friendship and how special friendships can be when you’re in high school,” he explained. “It’s much funnier than The Fault in Our Stars, which had some sad parts.”

Oh, really, John? The Fault in Our Stars “had some sad parts”? That’s kind of the understatement of the year, but I still love you anyway. 

But let’s get back to Paper Towns: If you’ve read the book, then you’re already familiar with all the feels the story evokes, but if you haven’t, or if you’re looking to relive them right this second, all you need to do is watch the trailer, which gives us our first real, deep dive look at Nat Wolff as Q and Cara Delevingne as Margo. And yes, there’s footage from the Longest Night. Go ahead and watch for yourself. I’ll just be dying of excitement over here.

Paper Towns isn’t coming to theaters until July 24, so there will probably be more (and more in-depth) trailers leading up to the release, but I can’t imagine being any more excited for this than I already am.

(Image via here.)