Four must-watch Netflix YA romances of 2026
Netflix has been building its YA romance corner for quite a while now, and you can trace the appetite back to To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which became successful enough to spawn two sequels and, eventually, the XO, Kitty spin-off. Now that’s what you call a franchise.
Then Never Have I Ever ran for four seasons, while Young Royals lasted three, proving that Netflix could keep viewers invested in teenage relationships without relying on exactly the same rom-com blueprint each time.
That variety matters because Netflix now treats YA as a broad category rather than one neat little formula, and to that end, its current catalogue includes romance alongside mysteries and coming-of-age stories under the young-adult projects continuing to arrive and thrive.
So, yes, the obsession is still very much alive in 2026, and this year has given romance fans a bunch of movies and series to binge. Here are the four best.
Four must-watch Netflix YA romances of 2026:
Finding Her Edge
Jane Austen on ice is basically what Finding Her Edge is serving, because Jennifer Iacopelli’s novel was loosely inspired by Persuasion, which makes a lot of sense once you get into it. Old feelings and bad timing are the essence of this show, and on top of that, everyone is wearing skates to navigate the ice and their feelings.
Madelyn Keys plays Adriana Russo, who gets pulled back into competitive ice dancing while her family’s rink is struggling for money. With her new partner, Cale Ambrozic’s Brayden Elliot, they decide to fake a romance because sponsorships love a good story, with the only hitch that Freddie O’Connell (played by Olly Atkins), Adriana’s former partner and first love, is still around. So now the fake romance is sitting right next to the very real business.
Netflix clearly liked what it saw too in this YA romance, because season two was ordered less than two weeks after the show debuted.
XO, Kitty (Season three)
Kitty Song Covey giving other people romantic advice while her own love life is in bits? Yeah, we’re still doing that, because why stop now? Season three takes her back to KISS for senior year, where she is trying to work out what exactly is going on with Min Ho. Easy enough, you’d think, except this is Kitty, so obviously one conversation is never just one conversation.
The bigger surprise this time is Lana Condor coming back as Lara Jean, and not for some blink-and-you-miss-it cameo either. She appears in multiple episodes, which finally puts the original To All the Boys heroine properly in Kitty’s world. Bit of a full-circle moment, that.
The spin-off has also done wonders for Netflix by reaching 14.2million views in its first week. So yes, Kitty may still be making a meal of her love life, but viewers clearly haven’t whetted their appetites.
Heartstopper Forever
And now for the one that hurts a bit. Heartstopper Forever is not season four, which already makes it feel different; Netflix and Alice Oseman decided to wrap Nick and Charlie’s story with a film instead.
It is cruel, really, because once you know it is goodbye, every little look suddenly feels loaded. The story picks up with Nick getting ready for university while Charlie is figuring out what life looks like when the person he loves is about to be somewhere else.
So the question goes from whether they love each other, which has been well established to what happens when love has to deal with distance. And maybe that’s why Heartstopper has always stood out in the YA romance crowd. This Netflix show never needed endless will-they-won’t-they nonsense to keep you hooked; it was pure chemistry, but let’s keep the show running here with our next contestant.
My Life with the Walter Boys (Season three)
Did you know Netflix renewed My Life with the Walter Boys for season four before season three had even premiered, which tells you a lot about where this show sits on Netflix’s YA romance list. The first and second seasons were massive hits, so Netflix clearly knows the Jackie-Cole-Alex triangle still has plenty of mileage.
Season three takes us back to the triangle already out in the open, which is much more fun because Jackie can’t really hide behind confusion anymore. She has admitted how she feels about Cole, and Alex knows there’s something going on; that must have been awkward.
But dealing with that awkwardness is where the new season gets interesting. Walter Boys is not trying to reinvent YA romance wheel, but it is focusing more on the emotional indecision, and viewers are clearly happy to go along with it.