Teen-skewing storytelling is in demand at Tubi from the looks of the YA-heavy film slate it unveiled at yesterday’s Fox upfronts.

The AVOD has greenlit three new YA movies as part of its continued strategy to “amplify original stories that resonate with our young and diverse viewers,” noted chief content officer Adam Lewinson.

In the mix is a high school rom-com called How to Lose a Popularity Contest, produced by Thunderbird Entertainment’s Great Pacific Media subsidiary. The film’s premise sees an overachieving teen and her school’s resident bad boy team up to win a student body president election. Penned by Kaitlin Reilly and Dorian Keyes, this screenplay was ranked as one of the 14 best unproduced scripts last year by the inaugural Love List.

Banking on the popularity of webnovels, Tubi has also ordered Kissing Is the Easy Part from Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. Adapted from a same-name Wattpad story by Christine Duann that has generated more than 31 million reads to date, this feature is also a high school romance. It tags along with a straight-A student who makes a deal to tutor a “wild child” girl in order to get a recommendation letter to his dream school.

Lewinson emphasized the strong performance of Tubi Originals and acknowledged the YA genre as a key driver, giving a special shoutout to last year’s Sidelined: The QB and Me (pictured). Also mined from Wattpad, this sporty teen feature is about a young girl trying to get into a top dance school while navigating the crush she has on the football team’s star quarterback. 

Sidelined attracted the biggest first-week audience of any Tubi title when it launched in November 2024, reaching 17.9% of the streamer’s total US viewers and 19.9% of total viewers in Canada. Buoyed by these strong numbers, Tubi quickly greenlit an a sequel pic (Sidelined 2: Intercepted) this February, which Great Pacific Media, Marshall Arts and Wattpad WEBTOON Studios are producing.

And in another sign of the platform’s growing investment in YA content, Tubi came on board to co-produce the second season of Studio Lambert’s hit series Boarders last summer. Originally commissioned by BBC Three, it revolves around five Black teens who navigate life at a British boarding school after winning scholarships to attend.