The actress shared photos of herself with cast members Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester, Michelle Trachtenberg, and more. Blake Lively marks Gossip Girl anniversa

The actress shared photos of herself with cast members Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester, Michelle Trachtenberg, and more.

Blake Lively marks Gossip Girl anniversary with throwback pics: 'This show was my college'

The actress shared photos of herself with cast members Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester, Michelle Trachtenberg, and more.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at . She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American Journalism Review and The Shreveport Times.

EW's editorial guidelines

September 22, 2025 8:33 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

The 'Gossip Girl' cast attends the 2007 premiere. Credit:

CLINT SPAULDING/Patrick McMullan via Getty

Blake Lively is feeling very Serena van der Woodsen.

The *Gossip Girl* alum shared several photos from behind the scenes of the CW series, which premiered on Sept. 19, 2007, to mark the 18th anniversary of the teen favorite.

Costarring Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford, and Taylor Momsen, the sudsy show depicted rich and young Manhattanites, who were the subject of a mean blogger's tales.

"This show was my college," Lively noted. "It was my education, my social life, my hardwork, my late nights and early mornings, my teacher. New York City and Silvercup Studios (& sometimes Paris) was my campus for SIX years."

She added, "So many memories. What. A. Decade. What a University."**

The images showed the ensemble in various groups, making the kind of silly faces and goofy poses their characters probably would have taken themselves too seriously to do. Lively and Meester embracing, Lively and Badgley (her real-life love interest for three years when the show began) dressed for a formal event, and Westwick and Crawford looking straight at the camera while appearing to be on a bus ride.

Penn Badgley felt 'the struggle' to keep personal life separate from work during 'Gossip Girl' days

'Gossip Girl' cast: See the stars of the teen soap, then and now

In one photo, Lively is fixing the hair of the late Michelle Trachtenberg, while Westwick does the actress' makeup. Trachtenberg died from complications of diabetes in February. She was 39.

The cast of the original version of the show — as opposed to the 2021 reboot, which aired for two seasons — has stayed close, although not everyone wholeheartedly embraces the work they did together.

Crawford said the show "really was of its time" during a June interview with PEOPLE.

Blake Lively marks the anniversary of 'Gossip Girl'.

Blake Lively/Instagram

"It was just before social media, a little bit ahead of its time in that regard. But in watching, it's very campy. I forget how kind of campy it was. It's kind of fun in that way," he said. "I haven't really rewatched any of it. I'd be terrified. It's a bit embarrassing."

In an April interview on the *Call Her Daddy* podcast, Badgley explained the struggle that came with being on such a successful show, at least for him.

***Sign up for **'s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.***

"What starts to happen when you're in this one role for a long time, the aspect of celebrity being a part of it, a huge part of it, there is not enough separation, I think, for anybody," Badgley said. "You're seen as this person. You're called their name out on the street. You also constantly have to be that person at work, and I was 20, I was 21, 22, so I didn't have the emotional maturity to understand how to differentiate myself just in terms of self-worth."

*Gossip Girl* is currently available to stream on HBO Max and Netflix.**

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL TV"

Read More

---

Source: VOGUE MAG

Full Article on Source: VOGUE MAG

#LALifestyle #USCelebrities