My New Favorite Vertical Drama is a Wattpad Story

Reelshort stepped into the webnovel universe with their first Wattpad adaptation of "Just One Kiss", and I'm obsessed!

I've been wondering for ages when Reelshort would try their hand at adapting a Wattpad book. Well, I can officially say "I told you so." The first Wattpad adaptation is here and it really, really works!

"Just One Kiss" is based on the Wattpad Original of the same name by Emily Jean—a New Adult romance with over a million reads on the platform. The story follows Farrah Blake, who confesses to her wealthy best friend Ethan that she’s on a mission to lose her virginity. Ethan offers to help her find the right guy, but adds something unexpected: if they can’t find Mr. Right by the end of summer, he’ll do the deed himself.

Despite Reelshort’s multiple forays into book adaptations, "Just One Kiss" marks their first attempt at adapting a Wattpad story, and it's a great example of how the Wattpad-to-Reelshort pipeline has the potential work so well. Wattpad and Reelshort stories are both episodic, geared toward a female audience, and heavily trope-driven. Both platforms focus primarily on New Adult romance, walking that fine line between content that's spicy enough to draw an audience but not so spicy that the app gets booted off the Apple Store.

"Just One Kiss" is the perfect test case and manages to check all the right boxes. It’s a best-friends-to-lovers romance jam-packed with tropes: summer vacation, mutual pining, love lessons. It’s an obvious winner for Reelshort audiences.

The leads, Noah Andre (Cheer Up, Baby) and Cailin Peluso (Faking It with the Hockey Captain), are well-cast and have great chemistry. Andre brings a certain charm and playfulness that reminds me of Noah Centineo in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Peluso, meanwhile, delivers a solid performance as the mousy nerd who secretly pines for her best friend. Both actors nail the deep longing and those little, kick-your-feet moments where the character's expression gives them away.

This adaptation, like all the Reelshort book adaptations, at times takes some unnecessary liberties with the story—adding in a few moments of over-the-top drama and recycled tropes that Reelshort writers just can’t seem to resist. But the overall adaptation is incredibly good. It manages to hold onto the earnestness and "Wattpad vibes" of the original story. The plot is compelling and the dialog feels natural. It just works.

The female lead, Fee, is a bit less developed than the book character and is a softer, more mousy type with less agency. I blame this not on the actress (who does an admirable job of bringing color to the character) but on Reelshort writers, who always try to make every female lead into a generic reader stand-in. I don't think that was the right choice, but the story doesn't suffer too much for it.

Ultimately, this adaptation wasn't just a delight to watch—it completely sparked my appetite for more Wattpad stories hitting the small screen. As a diehard Wattpader and self-proclaimed ReelShort aficionado, this feels like a total match made in heaven. Wattpad is basically the ultimate goldmine for untapped stories with a massive, built-in fanbase ready to binge.

While I haven't seen any official announcements, I highly suspect ReelShort and Wattpad actually partnered up for this one since the Wattpad logo pops up right in the credits. That said, things are complicated: Wattpad’s sister app, Webtoon, just broke into the vertical short industry themselves with the launch of their brand-new “Watch” tab last month. Because of that, Wattpad might start viewing ReelShort as a direct competitor. Or, who knows? Maybe there's room for a massive production collab in the future. Either way, I'm excited for the possibility of more Wattpad verticals in the future.

Watch on Reelshort: Just One Kiss

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