My biggest fear in writing 'Gossip Girl' was that the characters would sound like stereotypical rich, air-headed heiresses. These were my friends. They were smart and multifaceted. They had interests and passions. They wanted to become lawyers and doctors and writers and filmmakers.

Cecily von Ziegesar

Categorized in : Character Girl Smart

She was doing that thing some people do when they act nice and chipper and interested, while just below the surface they’re thinking really mean thoughts, and you can never call them on it because they’d just accuse you of being paranoid.

Cecily von Ziegesar

nice mean thinking

Recently my publicist asked me for a college photo, and I realize how chubby I looked. I know this sounds totally shallow, but my advice is don't fall prey to the freshmen fifteen!

Cecily von Ziegesar

college advice fall

And who am I? That's one secret I'll never tell...You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl

Cecily von Ziegesar

gossip girl secret

It's physics. Pure physics, I'm falling fast and faster still. So fall with me. Fall down with me. And stay.

Cecily von Ziegesar

physics faster fall

Back in my days as a children's book editor, my superiors caught on to the fact that teenagers were using the Internet to gossip about each other, and thought it might be nifty to develop a series of books about an anonymous high-school blogger who gossips about her classmates. The concept was passed on to me.

Cecily von Ziegesar

teenager book children

I know hate is a strong word and everything, but its okay: we're teenagers.

Cecily von Ziegesar

teenager hate strong

I'm always saying that my books are not autobiographical because they're not. I can't choose any one scene and say, 'Oh, this is exactly what happened to me!' I just use little snippets of things as a starting point!

Cecily von Ziegesar

use littles book

I avoid the young adult section altogether if possible, although it's sometimes fun to catch a girl lying on the floor, reading "Gossip Girl."

Cecily von Ziegesar

girl fun lying

I'd never really babysat. I feel like I'm Blair, or 'Gossip Girl.' A teenager, basically - and now suddenly I'm a mom?

Cecily von Ziegesar

teenager girl mom

But I've always been fascinated with that prettiest-girl-in-the-class person that I never was, getting inside her head and showing that she's just as tormented and messed up as everybody else.

Cecily von Ziegesar

messed-up girl class

When I meet other parents and they're more 'mumsy' than I am - you know, I don't want to be 'mumsy,' but I'm like, 'Were you always like that or... what happened?

Cecily von Ziegesar

happened parent want

When I was 16, 17, 18 years old, I felt like I had seen it all and done it all, and I was really kind of negative about everything.

Cecily von Ziegesar

done negative years

The girls show more skin these days, but I think, generally, they behave the same way as when I was growing up.

Cecily von Ziegesar

growing-up girl thinking

Smart, truly hilarious, and entirely sympathetic. Like a hot bubble bath or a holiday at the beach, you won't want it to end.

Cecily von Ziegesar

holiday smart beach

Even now, I change my style and clothes from one day to the next, but during high school I blended in. I think a lot of people are that way. I guess that's why I can write about an array of characters.

Cecily von Ziegesar

writing character school

...don't act like I didn't for you. I did. Hard. And for a long time. So please, forgive me if now that we're over, I'm exhausted.

Cecily von Ziegesar

gossip girl long

I'll tell you what I think. I think you need to stay indoors reading more books!

Cecily von Ziegesar

reading book thinking

I guess I was popular in high school.

Cecily von Ziegesar

high-school school

I'm just a crazy person. I mean, I really didn't have any trouble coming up with weird ways for people to die. I think I'm just very twisted!

Cecily von Ziegesar

crazy mean thinking

I decided that, if I were to write a teen series, I'd want to set it in a place that was familiar to me - Manhattan, where I'd grown up - and I'd model the characters on myself and my friends.

Cecily von Ziegesar

manhattan writing character