While not everyone who watched all six seasons of Gossip Girl can relate to the wealthy backgrounds of the characters, most people have dealt with bullying or mean classmates.
While a Gossip Girl reboot is coming, fans will always want to re-watch the original show for the fashion statements, friendships full of highs and lows, and romance, along with surprising plotlines.
Gossip Girl has a lot in common with teen drama Pretty Little Liars but there is one unique feature of the series: it had some inspiration from real life. While it is fiction, some parts do have some basis in reality.
Was the popular teen show based on some real people? Let's take a look.
Serena And Hadley Nagel
Blake Lively wanted to go to college instead of taking on the role of Serena van der Woodsen, but of course, fans know the choice that she made in the end.
Serena was based on Hadley Nagel, as many people say. According to Cheat Sheet, she is a socialite in New York City who is very well-known.
The publication says that Nagel is a "direct descendent of two men who signed the Declaration of Independence" and a countess of German descent.
According to Seattle Times, Cecily von Ziegesar, the author of the novels that the Gossip Girl TV series is based on, gave a copy of one of the books to Nagel and wrote a note. The note read, "To Hadley, the real thing. I hope you don’t mind being hassled about being the model for Serena. So, so funny! Sounds like you’re doing a lot more important things than Serena ever did, and more beautiful too. XOXO."
The publication notes that Nagel was always an intelligent child with a great work ethic and was an avid reader who loved history. According to the Village Voice, she was given a scholarship for all four years at John Hopkins, and she was called the "Egghead Debutante" by the New York Observer in 2009.
The Spence School
While Gossip Girl is not inspired by or based on the life of Charlotte Methven, this writer has said that when she watched Gossip Girl, she was reminded of her teenage years.
Methven went to NYC's Spence School, and as she wrote for The Daily Mail, this school is the real-life version of the school on Gossip Girl. Since Constance Billard School for Girls is based on Spence, it's fascinating to hear her story.
Methven wrote, "watching it is like seeing a raunchier and somewhat exaggerated version of my own American childhood played out on the screen."
Of Serena and Blair Waldorf, Methven wrote, "best friends and fiercest rivals, they are spookily similar to some of the girls I knew at Spence." She also said that the storylines on the show remind her of rumors that she heard back in the day: "I remember hearing whisperings of older girls dating married men or those who were said to sneak out of their parents’ apartments at night to party at downtown nightclubs. It all seemed terribly glamorous at the time."
Creating 'Gossip Girl'
In an interview with Vanity Fair, creator Josh Schwartz, also known for creating The O.C., shared that the book series painted a great picture of the Upper East Side so that was helpful in creating this TV world.
He said that Stephanie Savage, who he developed the series with, also played a part in that. Schwartz explained, "Stephanie spent some time in New York on the Upper East Side with some of these girls in real life and got the tour. We have writers who are from that world, so they bring a lot to the writing experience—a lot of flavor and texture that I think that makes it feel accurate in terms of geography, attitude, and tone. And then some of it is fantasy."
Alloy, the company that published the book series, gave Schwartz a copy of the first novel, and he showed it to Savage. He said to her, "If you like this, we should do it." Schwartz shared with The Hollywood Reporter that the pitch was "super elaborate" and was about a "New York fairy tale -- very archetypal characters: a princess, a knight in shining armor."
It's fascinating to learn a bit more about the inspiration behind the very juicy Gossip Girl and the Upper East Side world of Manhattan that includes an all-girls school. It will also be interesting to see the new characters in the reboot and what their lives are like.