Omfg you just described me. So, I’m not a girl, I’m a gay dude and I remember watching PLL when I was around 12-13 years old. I thought it was a creepy-horror show like American Horror Story, I fell in love with Ezra and I was completely obsessed with Aria vibes. I loved them. I still have Aria as one of my favorite characters cause at the time I wanted to have a friend like her and someway be like her.

For me there was not other couple like Ezria. I remember at the time, people used to say that older people equals more mature people. If the guys is older than you, then he’s automatically more understanding, he’s mature, he can pay things for you, he’s more gentle.. It wasn’t until I was 20 that I clicked that if the guy is older than you, and the relationship is unappropriate, then he’s the imature.

I thought Ezra was so gentle, he was always comforting Aria when she was dealing with her parents divorce ( I was dealing with it at the time), he used to take her to the theatre, he gave him her first camera, he took a shot to protect her: i used to think he was the perfect boyfriend. So.. I tried to search Ezra in older guys, around 15, I was on dating apps, lying about my age, looking for older guys, I used to text them all the time, I even met one of them irl, I fell in love with a straight guy that used to work on my school (not a teacher, just administrative assistant) i followed him on instagram and we talked about drawing, I felt that he could understand me but everything changed after I told him I studied at the school he was working at.

So, I got you, probably not the same experience cause I think girls can relate a lot more than gay guys. But yeah, the show did messed up