Serena van der Woodsen

Serena van der Woodsen
Gossip Girl character
File:Serena van der Woodsen.jpg Serena van der Woodsen as portrayed by Blake Lively
First appearance	Gossip Girl
Created by	Cecily von Ziegesar
Portrayed by	Blake Lively
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Actress Model Dutch Shipping Heiress
Family	William van der Woodsen (father) Lillian van der Woodsen (mother) Eric van der Woodsen (brother) Chuck Bass (adoptive brother) Rufus Humphrey (stepfather) Jenny Humphrey (stepsister) Dan Humphrey (stepbrother/ex-boyfriend)

Serena van der Woodsen is a fictional character from the young adult novel series Gossip Girl written by Cecily von Ziegesar. Described as a rich and popular girl, Serena is featured on the blog of the novel series' mysterious "Gossip Girl" narrator.

In the Gossip Girl television adaptation, the character is portrayed by Blake Lively.

Character outline

Serena is described as 5'10" tall, with blue eyes, blonde hair. Many of the girls at Constance Billard accuse her of using her wealth as a means to secure that everything goes her way which she does do. 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 1700s, and her mother, Lillian van der Woodsen, is a socialite. Her parents are on the boards of all major charities and art organizations in the city and Lily lives in a penthouse apartment.

Book series background

In the first novel of the series, Serena returns to Manhattan where she used to live at the exclusive Constance Billard School for Girls. Before leaving she was best friends with Blair Waldorf. Upon returning, she interrupts a passionate moment between Blair and Nate, and becomes the target of Blair's hatred as she constanly tries to steal the spotlight from Blair. During the series, Serena becomes briefly involved with Dan Humphrey and Blair's stepbrother Aaron Rose,

TV series background

Season 1

In the television adaptation, Serena's background is changed to be the daughter of divorced parents, and she has a younger brother named Eric. In the pilot episode, we see a flash back of a drunk Serena having sex with Nate. Filled with remorse, she exiles herself to boarding school. She returns to Manhattan after Eric attempts suicide. When she returns, Blair is angry with her, first because she left New York without saying goodbye, and later because she finds out about Serena and Nate. Her relationship with Blair remains volatile, due to the later insecurities about her mother's seeming preference for Serena, especially when Serena gets picked a Blair's mother's fashion line's model instead of Blair .Blair also is scared that Serena will take her "Queen Bee" position that she has held at Constance Billard during Serena's absence. During the television series, they alternate between cautious friendship and bitter rivals, making several attempts to humiliate one another during their off times. In the TV series, Serena has a much longer romance with Dan Humphrey, though it ends in the last episode. In the series, Serena's mother, Lillian, is engaged to Bartholomew Bass,the father of her friend Chuck. Chuck and Serena do not get on well, and Serena eventually gets Chuck kicked out of their apartment because she believes Chuck is sending her inappropriate presents, that remind her of her life before, as a "bad" girl, who liked to party, drink and take drugs. However, it turns out these gifts are from an old friend, Georgina Sparks, who has returned to Manhattan. Georgina threatens to tell everyone the real reason why Serena left for boarding school. Dan realises that something is wrong, and suspects that Serena is sleeping with someone else. Serena, feeling that she can't tell Dan the truth, stops talking to him. Georgina then reveals to everyone that Serena was with a man when he died from a drug overdose. Serena,then goes back to her old ways until the rest of the "Non-Judgemental Breakfast Club" (Blair, Nate, Chuck and Serena), rescue her. The last episode shows Serena confessing to Dan everything at her mother and Bart's wedding. However, Dan feels it is too much and is angry that she didn't tell him before, so they break up.

Season 2

The first episode shows Serena in the Hamptons, where she is pretending to date Nate so that he can have an affair with an older woman. Dan cannot stop thinking about Serena and he goes to the Hamptons, where they get back together. However, in the third episode they decide that they are two different people who could never work well together.

During Fashion Week (The Serena Also Rises), Blair is upset when she realizes that her mother has given Serena and Poppy Lifton, her new socialite friend, front row seats at her show. Blair again feels that her mother loves Serena more than her, and is angry that Serena will not be backstage with her as usual. Blair tries to sabotage the fashion show but it ends up being a huge success; this makes Blair even more jealous.

In "New Haven Can Wait," Serena, angry at Blair, decides to watch her own back and attend an interview at Yale, where Blair always dreamed of attending. Serena was given a personal acceptance from the school's dean and is invited to his house for a special party. Though uninivited, Blair bribes her way into the pary. After a game goes wrong, Serena and Blair decide they can never be friends and part ways.

Serena begins a romance with Aaron Rose, an artist and Blair's new step-brother. She accepts his offer to travel to Argentina with him but they break up soon into the flight.

Toward the end of the season, Serena begins a relationship with Gabriel, a man who is friends with Poppy Lifton. After getting her parents and their Upper East Side friends to invest in Gabriel's business that donates computers to third world countries, Serena realizes that both he and Poppy are conning them. She and the newly born-again Christian Georgina Sparks hatch a plan to catch them. However, the plan does not work out when Lily gets her daughter arrested. Gabriel and Poppy escape.

In the final episode of the season "The Goodbye Gossip Girl," Gossip Girl sends a blast during their graduation commencement ceremony. Serena, angry that Gossip Girl has ruined the day, vows to find out who she is. They don't, however, uncover her and accept that they will never know her identity. At the end of the episode, Carter Baisen, a friend of Serena, tells her she has found the whereabouts of her father. Serena decides to go with Carter to meet him. Serena has been given a place at Brown, her mother's alma mater.

Season 3

At the beginning of the season, Serena is in a relationship with Carter Baisen, and goes back to her partying ways. She decides to not go to Brown for another year, and gets a job at a publicist. Blair and Serena get into a feud, which is patched up by Nate and Chuck. Later, Serena gets a job in the office of Trip Van de Bilt, who is Nate's cousin, and is running for office as mayor of New York. Trip and Serena later have a relationship, even though Trip is married to Maureen. He tells Serena that he doesn't love Maureen and will leave her. Serena follows him out of town. Maureen however finds them, and bribes Serena with a letter from Serena's father, that contains gossip about Lily. Maureen says that Serena can be Trip's mistress, saying that she "will be Jackie [Kennedy]" and Serena "Marilyn [Monroe]. Serena refuses and tells Maureen that Trip will stay with her. However, when she finds out that Trip wants to stay with Maureen for his political career, she asks Trip to drive her back to New York. They have a car accident, and Serena is taken to hospital. Nate shouts at Trip and stays with Serena in the hospital. At present, Serena is living at Blair Waldorf's and is in a relationship with Nate. At the brink of the season, a scheming Jenny Humphrey will attempt to steal Nate from Serena as she will be developing feelings for him. Eventually, Serena will find out about her scheming acts that will strain both her (Jenny) relationship with Serena and perhaps, Nate. In addition, Serena will finally get to meet her long, lost father with the help of her ex-boyfriend Carter.

Reception

Blake Lively has won two Teen Choice Awards for her performance as Serena van der Woodsen.