New Amazon series The Bold Type is Sex and the City for millennials, says star

A new series arriving on Londoners’ screens this week has been a hit in America because it is a perfect storm of “The Devil Wears Prada meets Sex And The City”, according to its star.

The Bold Type is inspired by the life of former Cosmopolitan magazine editor-in-chief Joanna Coles — who executive-produced the show — and follows three young women as they try to achieve their dreams in New York.

American Idol finalist Katie Stevens stars alongside The Office’s Melora Hardin as the series explores “real and positive” female friendship, complex sexuality, sexual violence and the current political climate.

Stevens told the Standard: “I am really excited that [the show] is going international. “These topics are universal — everybody can relate to female friendship, everybody can relate to navigating your way through your twenties and how confusing and difficult and beautiful and fun that is.

And I think everybody can relate to these girls and the dreams they have, and these ambitions that they have, and going after them. “Issues of racial inequality aren’t only happening in the US. Feminism isn’t [either] — there are women’s marches all over the world. Someone in London can relate as much as someone here [in the US].”

The series, set at Scarlet magazine, a close equivalent to Cosmopolitan, was created and produced by women. Its central characters dress in the latest fashions, have affairs and head to glamorous parties — but they are also shown confronting prejudice, and the character of their female boss defies drama stereotypes to be nurturing.

“I loved the meeting for the show… all of the executives were women,” Stevens said. “They said to me, ‘It’s kind of like Devil Wears Prada meets Sex And The City’, and I was like, ‘Sign me up right now.’”

The Bold Type is exclusively on Amazon Prime from Friday.