Serena van der Woodsen
Serena Celia van der Woodsen Humphrey is a fictional character and the protagonist in the Gossip Girl novel series and in its TV adaptation, in which she is portrayed by Blake Lively. Serena is featured on the blog of the series' mysterious narrator, "Gossip Girl". Serena is known as the 'it girl of Manhattan' and is a character that appears to easily get whatever she wants because of her captivating beauty and charismatic personality. She is the daughter of a successful doctor, and a well known socialite/heiress.
Serena van der Woodsen
Novel:
Gossip Girl (2002)
Television:
"Pilot"
(episode 1.01)
Novel:
I Will Always Love You
Television:
"New York, I Love You XOXO"
(episode 6.10)
Character
Cecily von Ziegesar
Developed for Television
Josh Schwartz
Stephanie Savage
Serena Celia van der Woodsen Humphrey
Sabrina
Gossip Girl 3.0
Savannah
S
Novels:
Fashion model
High school student
Dutch shipping heiress
Socialite
Television:
Socialite
Fashion model (former)
Publicist (former)
High school student
(at Constance Billard; graduated)
College student
(at Columbia)
Gossip Girl (former)
William van der Woodsen
(father)
Lillian "Lily" van der Woodsen
(mother)
Eric van der Woodsen
(brother)
Television:
Bartholomew "Bart" Bass
(former stepfather; deceased)
Rufus Humphrey
(former stepfather / father-in-law)
Lola Rhodes (paternal half-sister)
Scott Rosson
(maternal half-brother)
Charles "Chuck" Bass
(former stepbrother / adoptive brother)
Jenny Humphrey
(former stepsister / sister-in-law)
Henry Bass
(nephew, via Chuck and Blair)
Rick and Celia "CeCe" Rhodes
(maternal grandparents)
Television: Dan Humphrey (husband; flash-forward)
Nate Archibald
Aaron Rose
Carter Baizen
Tripp Vanderbilt
Colin Forrester
Ben Donovan
Gabriel Edwards
Steven Spence
Television:
Unnamed child
(with Dan)
Carol Rhodes
(maternal aunt)
Charlotte "Lola" Rhodes
(paternal half-sister/cousin)
14 July 1991
Blair (best friend)
Novel series[edit]
Serena is a tall, blonde, slim, and beautiful teenage girl from the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Many of the girls at the Constance Billard school accuse her of using her good looks as a means to secure everything she wants. She is not particularly academically skilled, but she is often told that she is not meeting her full potential. Her father runs the same Dutch shipping firm his great-great-grandfather founded in the 18th century, and her mother, Lillian van der Woodsen, is a socialite, art collector, and philanthropist. Her mother and father are on the boards of all major charities and art organizations in the city. The van der Woodsens reside at 994 Fifth Avenue, a ritzy, white-gloved doorman building directly across the street from The Met and Central Park. Serena and her family own half the top floor in a 14-room penthouse.
Serena has a nail-biting habit and also cuts her split ends off, mainly during her classes at Constance Billard. Though exposed and aware of the on-goings in the fashion world, she, unlike Blair, is not as meticulous about her fashion choices and wardrobe. She is described to have an effortless way about her. Serena is charismatic, charming, talented, funny, kind, care-free, and laid-back. These attributes help her to thrive and often, whether willingly or unwillingly, attract older men.
Despite all of her attributes, Janet Malcolm of The New Yorker considers her "incandescently beautiful, exceptionally kind, and, in the end, it has to be said, somewhat boring."[1]
Television series[edit]
Characterization[edit]
People compares her character with Josh Schwartz's original it-girl creation, Marissa Cooper, stating that Serena "seems to have it all, but in addition to a party girl reputation, dark family secrets and a disregard for high society, Serena one-ups the sulky Coop with a history of BFF betrayal."[2] Jason Gay of Rolling Stone describes Serena as "the bad girl gone good(ish) who serves as Gossip Girl's wobbly moral compass." He added praise while describing her early strained relationship with Blair, stating, "Lively's Serena is a former queen bee who mysteriously disappeared from campus, only to return and find her spiteful ex-best friend, Blair (Meester), in charge."[3] With regards to her character's direction in the show, actress Blake Lively commented on her character's adventurous storylines during an interview with Nylon saying, "I feel ridiculous at times with her, because I'm, you know, killing someone or marrying someone, but I look like me. I'm like, 'Oh, this is absurd.'"[4][5] Vogue magazine considers Lively's upbringing to be advantageous to her character background and finds her "dazzling and worldly and optimistic". Her mother, a former model from Georgia would dress her differently and her differing fashion choices drew the attention of her classmates from the L.A. private school she enrolled in. "It was the only school where people were just downright mean to me," Lively stated. "They would make fun of my clothes because I dressed differently than the other kids."[6]
Reception[edit]
Television[edit]
Serena's style has earned noteworthy praise from periodicals such as InStyle[29] and NYLON.[30] EW's Meeta Agrawal places Blake Lively's Serena van der Woodsen amongst the wearers of the 20 Knockout Dresses of the '00s. Her Tory Burch designed dress in the pilot earning the 2nd spot on the list.[31] People magazine references an issue of NYLON, reporting that even the actress herself admits to liking her character's style and wardrobe and InStyle's Joyann King praises "Serena’s vixen-like style and Lively’s smoldering off-screen choices".[29][32] In an interview for Vanity Fair, costume designers Eric Daman and Meredith Markworth-Pollack considered fashion model Kate Moss and New York socialites Tinsley Mortimer and Arden Wohl as a muse when dressing Lively and when asked if they were influenced by New York socialites, respectively.[33] TV Guide named her the fifth most fashionable TV character.[34] Glamour listed her as one of the 12 Most Stylish TV Characters.[35]
Blair and Serena's friendship was praised as "it offered a relationship whose depth and complexity approached Rory and Paris' [from Gilmore Girls]."[36] Vanity Fair considered Serena's murder storyline to be "unrealistic" and "an obvious ratings ploy," going on to compare it to a dramatic scene in The O.C., in which Marissa shot Ryan Atwood's brother, stating that the show may have possibly jumped the shark.[37]
For her portrayal of Serena van der Woodsen, Blake Lively won the 2008 Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actress Drama and was nominated for the same award in 2009 and 2010, losing to her co-star, Leighton Meester, who portrays Blair Waldorf.[38] She, however, won the award again in 2011. Lively also earned a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite TV Drama Actress in 2011 and 2012.