The US Trends | Blake Lively | Blake Lively is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van derWoodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl. Lively has also starred in movies,including Accepted,The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,The Private Lives ofPippa Lee,The Town and Green Lantern.
Blake Lively was born into a Los Angeles show business family onAugust 25,1987. Her father,Ernie,was an actor and director,and her mother,Elaine,was a talent scout. Blake Lively is the youngest of 5children,and all four of her older siblings are also actors.Before moving toLosAngeles to pursue their show business careers,Lively\\\'s parents lived inGeorgia,and the household always maintained itsSouthern influences."I have a tight-knitSouthern family,"she says."So whenever I tell people I///'m from L.A.,they say,'Yeah,but you don///'t count,'I guess because of theSouthern values I was raised with,and the way I eat — the more sugary and cheesy and fried,the better."
Blake Lively began the 1st grade when she was only three years old.Her six-year-old brother was so nervous about beginning 1st grade alone that her mother told the school that Blake(who was extremely tall for her age)was also six years old so that she could accompany him."After a few weeks,"Lively remembers,"they said they would have to put me in mentally disabled classes because I wasn\\\'t up to pace with the rest of the kids.They thought that I was slow because all I wanted to do was sleep while the other kids were doing their projects."After getting that early,if perhaps ill advised,jump on her primary education, Lively attended a staggering 13different schools by the time she graduated from 12th grade.She finally settled at Burbank High School,where she stood out in both her academics and her extracurricular activities.Besides receiving stellar grades in her AP coursework,Lively was a cheerleader,class president,and member of her school\\\'s show choir.
Despite strong pressure from her older siblings to ditch school and embark on an acting career, Blake Lively initially expressed no interest in acting.Instead,she had her own dreams of attending Stanford University. Nevertheless,sensing her star potential,her older brotherEric relentlessly pushed Blake Lively to try auditioning."He was trying to get me to make life decisions at15!"she recalls.He then began contacting agents and telling them about his beautiful,talented younger sister."I was really busy at school,"Lively remembers,"and I would have these agents calling and saying,'We have an appointment for you.'It was really hard to say no,because I didn't want to make my brother upset."
During her junior year of high school,at the age of17, Blake Lively finally consented to attend a few auditions.She found nearly instant success.After only a few months of auditioning, Lively landed a major role in the2005 blockbuster"chick flick"TheSisterhood of the Traveling Pants,which filmed during the summer between her junior and senior years atBurbank High School. Her performance earned her aTeenChoice Award nomination forBreakout Movie Star.
After filming Traveling Pants, Blake Lively returned to Burbank for her senior year and graduated in2005.After finishing her diploma,she immediately returned to acting,starring oppositeJustin Long andJonahHill in the2006 comedy Accepted.A year later,in2007, Lively landed her most famous role to date on the CW\\\'s hit teen drama Gossip Girl.The show follows a cohort of privileged teenagers on New York\\\'sUpper East Side, with Lively playing the lead role of Serena van der Woodsen, a stylish blonde and(somewhat)reformed party girl.
Bolstered by intense media coverage,including a provocative and controversial photo shoot inRollingStone magazine,GossipGirl quickly developed a cult like fan base.Its young and beautiful cast became nearly ubiquitous on celebrity magazine covers and websites.The fashion forward show,and Lively\\\'s character in particular,also had enormous influence over style trends.Any outfit Lively wears as Serena in an episode ofGossipGirl sells out of stores the day after the episode airs.GossipGirl is currently in its fourth season,and Lively won the2008 TeenChoice Award for TV Actress andTV BreakoutStar for her performance.
With her dazzling good looks,natural acting talent,and devoted backing from devoted GossipGirl fans, Blake Lively appears on the verge of breaking out as a top flight movie star.In aJanuary 2010profile,Esquire called Lively"the most promising and interesting and talented young actress of the year."In2010,she displayed a grittier side in her role as a young mother in Ben Affleck\\\'s crime thrillerThe Town.Both the film and Lively\\\'s performance drew widespread critical acclaim.
