Artistic identity is more treacherous than a silk slip dress on a Hamptons night in Hollywood. No bona fide A-lister wants to be trapped in a single golden cage, even if it is 24-karat. Stardom relies on reinvention, but when cosmos conspires, sometimes, a single role becomes less of a credit and more of a crowning. Blake Lively has danced through indie flicks, rom-coms, and even superhero blockbusters. But when she slipped into Serena van der Woodsen’s stilettos in Gossip Girl, she launched a cultural reset. With every chiffon swoop and designer drama, the Upper East Side deity had fashion editors foaming at the mouth. 

While the Louboutins clicked and a legacy was built, how old was the on-screen trust fund baby when couture bowed at her feet?

The unofficial heiress of high fashion, Serena van der Woodsen, aka Blake Lively, was just 20 when she appeared in the first season of Gossip Girl. The show premiered in 2007 and ended in 2012. Lively portrayed Serena through six seasons. So, by the conclusion of the CW drama, she was around 26 or 27 years old. For the most part, the Gossip Girl actors, including Lively, were not significantly older than their counterparts in the show.

The actress was cast when she was 19. When Gossip Girl premiered, the primary characters were in the junior year at the Constance Billard School for Girls and the St. Jude’s School for Boys, making Serena roughly 16 at the time. Since Serena also spent a year away attending a boarding school in Connecticut, Lively’s age being older than the character actually favored the show. 

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While the world was busy gasping at Serena’s style supremacy, did you know how much Blake Lively cashed in by making Manhattan her runway?

Blake Lively’s net worth stands at a towering $30 million in 2025, and anyone who knows her well is aware of her Hollywood beginnings with Gossip Girl. Her performance in the CW teen drama made Lively a household name. Although she already appeared in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005, Gossip Girl was a game-changer for her in more ways than one. According to Celebrity Net Worth, the series lead reportedly made $60,000 per episode.

By the end of Gossip Girl, if the calculations sit right, Lively may have earned a whopping total of $7.26 million from 121 episodes. She already portrayed a millionaire in the CW show and now, she is living the most of her million-dollar life. It has been more than a decade since Gossip Girl pulled its curtains, but every time Lively steps out, Vogue leans in like it is a giveaway of Judith Lieber clutches. The trust fund drama may have ended, but the gossip? Girl, that lives on!

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Did you know how old Blake Lively was in Gossip Girl? Let us know in the comments below!