Bianca Lawson

If you have a tween girl in the house, you’re probably aware of at least a few shows airing on ABC Family — ’The Secret Life of the American Teenager,’ ’Make It or Break It,’ and ’10 Things I Hate About You’ spring to mind.

The network has a new show premiering June 8 that looks to grab some of that audience. ’Pretty Little Liars’ sounds like a cross between ’The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,’ ’Desperate Housewives,’ and ’Gossip Girl.’ But it also looks pretty good. Here are four reasons why this show will be a hit.

1. Intriguing Story. The show follows four estranged best friends who are reunited after their queen bee, Allison, goes missing. Sure, things look great from the outside looking in, but take a closer look, and all is not as perfect as it seems, especially when they start receiving messages from an anonymous "A" who knows all their secrets. Hmmm ... sounds a bit like the first fabulous, buzzed-about season of ’Desperate Housewives.’

2. Very Cool Cast. The main players include Lucy Hale (’Privileged’) as Aria, Trojan Bellisario (’Navy NCIS’) as Spencer, Ashley Benson (’Eastwick’) as Hanna, and Shay Mitchell as Emily. Also in the cast are Bianca Lawson (she played Emily Bennett on ’The Vampire Diaries’ and Shawna on ’The Secret Life of the American Teenager’), Laura Leighton (’Melrose Place’), Chad Lowe (’24’ and ’Bones’), and Nia Peeples (’The Young and the Restless’ and ’Walker, Texas Ranger’). And Holly Marie Combs was just cast to play Aria’s mother. ’Charmed’ fans know her as Piper on that show. Not only is everyone really nice to look at in their adult costumes, but they’ve got some acting chops among them.

3. Great Behind-the-Scenes Crew. Alloy Entertainment is the mastermind behind such other hits as ’Gossip Girl’ and ’The Vampire Diaries.’ They were also the production company behind ’The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ films. Expect good things.

4. Sweet Music. Like other shows on ABC Family, this one is sure to feature some great tunes. ’Love Lost,’ a song from the hot Aussie band The Temper Trap, is featured in an exclusive ’Pretty Little Liars’ preview playing in theaters now.