Oh, "Gossip Girl." Even though the lives these characters lived were so far beyond what most people would experience, it hit close to home. Their life events were what our dreams are made of (living in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan, private drivers, designer wardrobes), but they were still teenagers and young adults trying to figure out life. Just like us. As an audience, we were able to connect to this show because of one thing — these characters were fleshed out and fully developed. One of the biggest examples of this is Blair Waldorf.
Known as the “Queen Bee” at Constance Billiard, Blair is originally portrayed to be the mean girl. The one who dictates how the girls accessorize their school uniforms, where they can sit at lunch, who they can’t date. It’s hard at first to gain much sympathy for her. She seemed to cause misery at almost every turn, but slowly, her story comes out. Her best friend (a girl who was the sister she never had) left without saying goodbye. Her father cheated on her mother with a man and moved to Paris. Her mother was too busy running her fashion line to really be there as a mother. Oh, and Blair suffered from an eating disorder.
Just like that, it’s easy to see why Blair acts the way she does, especially in the early seasons of the show. Does it justify it? Of course not. But it’s understandable. She was a 16-year-old girl trying to make sense of the chaos surrounding her life in the only way that she knew how. By taking on the role of the “Queen Bee," she took back some control in her life that she had felt slipping. It didn’t always work — some personal choices she made came back to haunt her, causing her to lose everything she fought so hard for — but she dealt with it. And eventually, she built a life that included professional success and personal happiness.
Throughout the seasons, Blair grew into so much more than this role that she coveted. She became someone who would always fight for what she wanted, even if it wasn’t necessarily the right thing to do. Being with Chuck was something that everyone (including Serena) continuously judged her for, but she knew that she loved him. That knowledge not only gave her the strength to take a leap and tell him how she felt, but also allowed her to fight for their relationship when he was uncertain. She never gave up because being with him made her stronger than she ever thought possible.
That strength came into play when she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. Blair very easily could’ve become a modern-day society woman, doing nothing more than sitting on the boards of various philanthropies and hosting parties, living very comfortably on her family’s money. Instead, she wanted to earn her own way. She worked extremely hard to earn herself an internship at W Magazine. Once there, the hard work didn’t stop. She put the responsibilities of that internship above everything else, including her college classes at Columbia. Her diligence, strength and determination paid off when her mother offered her the position as head of Waldorf Designs, a position that lead to the creation of her own line, B by Waldorf.
"Gossip Girl" may be fictional, but the struggles and the achievements of the characters are all too real. Because of that, Blair Waldorf will always be an inspiration.
