When I originally watched Pretty Little Liars Aria and Ezra were my favourite couple. You do not understand, I justified their relationship so hard!

I sat there hoping Aria’s mother, the marvellous Holly Marie Combs, would not find out about Ezra because then the relationship would have to finish as it was technically illegal.

So I understood it was illegal but I thought it was ok because they were in love and it was consensual.

However, I was rewatching scenes a while back and in season one Aria is sixteen… right? She’s a whole teenager. And I am in my late twenties now and I’m sitting here like, “Wait, how old is Ezra?” (He was twenty two, not old but still gross). And suddenly their whole relationship is so gross to me.

Actually, you know what, it started seeming gross when we found out that Ezra knew all along how old Aria was and that he specifically targeted her AND that he had a thing with Allison!!! What!

When we reached that part of the story I swear I was like, throw this relationship away! Never go back to him Aria but she did! She went back to him and they tried to make it seem ok but I was like nah, NAH.

Since my eyes opened I could then see it was wrong from the beginning. She was sixteen. Sixteen!!

The actress wasn’t sixteen so she didn’t look like the baby she was but she was! She was a baby!!

I know sixteen year olds will get mad and I get it. When I was sixteen I was like, “I’m grown.” But looking back, I wasn’t grown. I still had a lot of growing to do and learning to do. I still had a lot to experience in life.

I think age matters when you’re in your teens because it is such a turbulent time and we’re so susceptible to manipulation. We really have to be careful of who our friends are or who we date because they can shape the rest of our lives.

Sure, it’s not like the damage done can’t be undone, but some damage takes a long time to be undone. Like what Aria went through.

He was a grown man and he manipulated her… for a book.

Even if they never went with that storyline it was still a wrong relationship and he should have gone to jail.

She never got to be a teenager. She was acting fully grown so quickly and listen, there is joy in being young and dumb because when you’re an adult it’s not as easy to find time to be young and carefree.

I think it’s because the actors are not actually the age that they are portraying that we’re so ok with this trend of older person dating someone underage.

I’ve been rewatching my old favs and there’s a similar storyline in The OC. It’s gross, Julie should have gone to jail! Why was Luke the only one punished? In fact, why was Luke punished? He was the victim! It’s because he’s a boy. And many people have talked about this but if he was a girl the sexual assaulter would have gone to jail or something.

In Desperate Housewives, again I didn’t see the problem as a kid but now as an adult it’s gross. He’s in high school… like high school. For my British peeps he’s in secondary school! We’ve seen boys in secondary school, they do not look grown!

If they looked how they do in real life on these TV shows we would be up in arms… as we should.

However, even if they look old they’re not. Aria was sixteen and that still messes up my mind.

In England our legal age of consent is sixteen however if my friend came to me and told me the guy she was dating was in his thirties or even twenties, I’d be alarmed and I’d jump him. Or I’d get another friend so we could tag team because EW!

Why is a grown man interested in a sixteen year old?!

Age is nothing but a number… yeah when you’ve past your teens!

Just please… leave teenagers alone.

It’s safe to say they’re not my favourite couple on the show anymore. In fact even when I was watching it they didn’t remain my favourite for long. Spencer and Toby and Hanna and Caleb overtook them. They were so cute.

Honestly… the love I had for those two couples… now that’s what we need! Romance between teenagers.

Also Emily deserved better love interests.