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Serena Celia van der Woodsen, Park Avenue princess, comes from two West Coast families. Turning eighteen was anti-climactic, not just because she was stuck on the island, but because age hadn't stopped her from doing anything she wanted before. She began learning French when she was four years old. Her mother tried to get her to learn to play the piano, just to have an instrument in her repertoire, but Serena gave up very quickly. She loves languages, but she refuses to learn German. Every year at New York Fashion Week, Serena skipped great seats at a major show to stand backstage with Blair and watch the Waldorf line debut for the season. Even though Carter Baizen can be a complete ass, she secretly thinks he's a pretty decent guy, at least to her. She can't even remember when she first decided she wanted to go to Brown, but it was because her mom went there, too. Her favorite designers are Zac Posen, Marc Jacobs and Tory Burch, but she's got a growing affection for Jenny Humphrey's work. She has no idea what she wants to do when she grows up, or maybe just too many ideas.
She was fourteen when she lost her virginity. Ernest Hemingway is one of her favorite writers. Every summer when she was little, she spent at Camp Suisse, where her favorite activities included pizza night, skiing and dog sledding. The night she left Manhattan for boarding school was the worst of her life. She still misses Dan. From the first day they met, Blair Waldorf has been her best friend. Serena's favorite place to go on vacation is Capri, Italy. If there's one person in their circle Serena has never been attracted to, it's Chuck. She's always identified more with Daisy Miller than Daisy Buchanan. There's nothing wrong with keeping a secret if telling the truth will hurt someone - especially if that someone is her.
Having sex with Nate at the Shepherd wedding is among her biggest regrets, but it's not number one. As much as she fears Georgina, Serena still misses when they were friends. One of the best things about living on the island is that there's no more Gossip Girl. She can't ever decide what her favorite color is for long. There's a million places better than New York to be in the summer, but nothing beats Manhattan in the fall. She's been searching for her father for two years now without any luck. Vanya the doorman was a better parent than Lily sometimes. If she ever gets home, she wants to see Japan. When she was nine, she got fake-married on the shores of Lake Geneva at summer camp, then divorced when she ate the licorice ring. She knows she's a terrible sister and she's trying to do better.
Because of one of her mother's boyfriends, she was briefly made to convert to Islam. Of all her mother's husbands since van der Woodsen, Serena actually finds Bart the least objectionable. Part of her misses being the girl she used to be, because at least then she didn't have to think so much about whether or not she was being good. She's seen Breakfast at Tiffany's more than any of her own favorite movies. Her favorite food is a cheese sandwich grilled in truffle oil. She really did think she was in love with Nate for a little while there. The two spots in New York Serena misses most are her bench at the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It scares her to she might not have changed if Pete hadn't died. There's nothing she wouldn't do for Blair. Those weekends when her mother went away with her latest boyfriend, she always liked staying with the Waldorfs better than the Archibalds.
She'd rather pretend everything's alright than face the consequences. Watching her mother go through all those men and marriages didn't teach her much except that she doesn't want to get married more than once and she sort of expects men to disappear once they say they love you. Serena has a lot of mistaken notions about who she is and what she wants. Wanting an Ivy League education was despite, not because, it was expected of her. She's kind of accustomed to being put on a pedestal. Being treated as superior because of her wealth makes her deeply uncomfortable - if she's in a setting to notice the contrast, otherwise she might not notice. She liked Dan before she knew he was from Brooklyn, but it helped that he wasn't a society boy. Getting trashed any time of day used to be a normal occurrence for her. Before junior year, she missed more classes than she attended. Georgina was the first girl she ever kissed. She's only ever been to church for weddings and funerals.
She dated before Dan, but he was the first real boyfriend she ever had. As much as she might fuss about it, Serena loves being the center of attention. The only thing that scared her as much as Pete's death was when Blair had to be put in the hospital for her bulimia. She'll try most things once, short of incest or anything involving needles. People have always, always looked at her, but she knows almost none of them have really seen her. Turning seventeen, alone in Paris while the Bastille Day fireworks went off, was just about the loneliest she's ever been. She always just ignored it when her mom tried to ground her. As much as it freaks her out that her mom was some kind of late Eighties Penny Lane, Serena's kind of jealous she never got to try that herself. She has a real talent for remembering details - names and faces of people she barely knows - cultivated at a hundred boring society parties.
Even if it's just a digital camera, not one of those elaborate film ones, taking pictures of live events makes her feel a little closer to her mom. Beat's the first boy she's ever been enough in love with to tell. The closer someone gets to her, the harder she finds it to trust them, at least at first. The more something's her fault, the likelier she is to blame someone else. She never thinks about whether or not what she's doing is geeky or lame, but she worries she might be silly. No matter what Nate, Chuck or Blair do to her, she'll defend them against anyone else. Well-educated and intelligent, she nevertheless persists in believing she's not all that bright. She likes throwing parties because they're one thing she knows she can get right. Her favorite vaction ever was this one summer, before everything went wrong, when she just rode all over the Italian coast on this little Vespa, meeting guys and going dancing. The less she's to blame, the likelier she'll feel horrifically guilty.
She still worries that none of her experience with guys has prepared her to get this dating stuff right. As happy as she is on the island, she wants to be back in New York more than she'll ever admit. She wishes she'd found her father first. The night of Atia's party remains a total blank for her, and that's the way she likes it. Although she's spent more time in clubs than ballrooms, she's had to learn how to tango, foxtrot and waltz, among other things. For a little while, when she was younger, she played soccer. She's kind of sorry she missed her senior prom. She has a knack for just not thinking of the things she's afraid of. If there's one silver lining in Georgina's having been on the island, it's that it made her move forward and notice Beat. When they were little, she and Blair used to dress up as princesses, and Serena was always Sleeping Beauty.
It bothers her that Nate sees the island as just a stop on the way back to real life, but she still expects that she'll get back to Manhattan someday. She wants to teach English in Asia, but it's really just one of lots of possible careers she's thought up. Her drink of choice, depending on the occasion, is either a martini or a redheaded slut, but she's not picky. No matter how much she claims she's different, she's as good at scheming as any of the others. Sometimes even she doesn't realize how manipulative she's being. What she really wants is to matter to someone exactly as she is, not for what she's been or might be or what she owns or how she looks. No one knows her better than her brother and Blair do. She can come off terribly flighty, but it's mostly just a kind of willfulness. She truly believes everyone deserves a second chance. If Eric hadn't tried to kill himself, it would have been much, much longer before Serena came home.
Contrary to popular belief, she has never actually slept with either a bullfighter or one of her boarding school professors. Her favorite movies are Marie-Antoinette and Rear Window. No matter how many people die or nearly die around her, she's never given any thought to the fact of her own mortality. It took some getting used to, but she doesn't really mind Chuck being her step-brother anymore. Back when she was still dating Dan, she hardly noticed Jenny at all. If she had a five minute window in which she could choose to go home, she'd lose the chance to indecision. She prefers coffee (black and sweet) to tea. She really doesn't pay all that much attention to her hair and clothes. Just because she knows that she couldn't have saved Pete doesn't mean she doesn't feel guilty even now. She may not know or like it, but she's still her mother's daughter.
She was fourteen when she lost her virginity. Ernest Hemingway is one of her favorite writers. Every summer when she was little, she spent at Camp Suisse, where her favorite activities included pizza night, skiing and dog sledding. The night she left Manhattan for boarding school was the worst of her life. She still misses Dan. From the first day they met, Blair Waldorf has been her best friend. Serena's favorite place to go on vacation is Capri, Italy. If there's one person in their circle Serena has never been attracted to, it's Chuck. She's always identified more with Daisy Miller than Daisy Buchanan. There's nothing wrong with keeping a secret if telling the truth will hurt someone - especially if that someone is her.
Having sex with Nate at the Shepherd wedding is among her biggest regrets, but it's not number one. As much as she fears Georgina, Serena still misses when they were friends. One of the best things about living on the island is that there's no more Gossip Girl. She can't ever decide what her favorite color is for long. There's a million places better than New York to be in the summer, but nothing beats Manhattan in the fall. She's been searching for her father for two years now without any luck. Vanya the doorman was a better parent than Lily sometimes. If she ever gets home, she wants to see Japan. When she was nine, she got fake-married on the shores of Lake Geneva at summer camp, then divorced when she ate the licorice ring. She knows she's a terrible sister and she's trying to do better.
Because of one of her mother's boyfriends, she was briefly made to convert to Islam. Of all her mother's husbands since van der Woodsen, Serena actually finds Bart the least objectionable. Part of her misses being the girl she used to be, because at least then she didn't have to think so much about whether or not she was being good. She's seen Breakfast at Tiffany's more than any of her own favorite movies. Her favorite food is a cheese sandwich grilled in truffle oil. She really did think she was in love with Nate for a little while there. The two spots in New York Serena misses most are her bench at the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It scares her to she might not have changed if Pete hadn't died. There's nothing she wouldn't do for Blair. Those weekends when her mother went away with her latest boyfriend, she always liked staying with the Waldorfs better than the Archibalds.
She'd rather pretend everything's alright than face the consequences. Watching her mother go through all those men and marriages didn't teach her much except that she doesn't want to get married more than once and she sort of expects men to disappear once they say they love you. Serena has a lot of mistaken notions about who she is and what she wants. Wanting an Ivy League education was despite, not because, it was expected of her. She's kind of accustomed to being put on a pedestal. Being treated as superior because of her wealth makes her deeply uncomfortable - if she's in a setting to notice the contrast, otherwise she might not notice. She liked Dan before she knew he was from Brooklyn, but it helped that he wasn't a society boy. Getting trashed any time of day used to be a normal occurrence for her. Before junior year, she missed more classes than she attended. Georgina was the first girl she ever kissed. She's only ever been to church for weddings and funerals.
She dated before Dan, but he was the first real boyfriend she ever had. As much as she might fuss about it, Serena loves being the center of attention. The only thing that scared her as much as Pete's death was when Blair had to be put in the hospital for her bulimia. She'll try most things once, short of incest or anything involving needles. People have always, always looked at her, but she knows almost none of them have really seen her. Turning seventeen, alone in Paris while the Bastille Day fireworks went off, was just about the loneliest she's ever been. She always just ignored it when her mom tried to ground her. As much as it freaks her out that her mom was some kind of late Eighties Penny Lane, Serena's kind of jealous she never got to try that herself. She has a real talent for remembering details - names and faces of people she barely knows - cultivated at a hundred boring society parties.
Even if it's just a digital camera, not one of those elaborate film ones, taking pictures of live events makes her feel a little closer to her mom. Beat's the first boy she's ever been enough in love with to tell. The closer someone gets to her, the harder she finds it to trust them, at least at first. The more something's her fault, the likelier she is to blame someone else. She never thinks about whether or not what she's doing is geeky or lame, but she worries she might be silly. No matter what Nate, Chuck or Blair do to her, she'll defend them against anyone else. Well-educated and intelligent, she nevertheless persists in believing she's not all that bright. She likes throwing parties because they're one thing she knows she can get right. Her favorite vaction ever was this one summer, before everything went wrong, when she just rode all over the Italian coast on this little Vespa, meeting guys and going dancing. The less she's to blame, the likelier she'll feel horrifically guilty.
She still worries that none of her experience with guys has prepared her to get this dating stuff right. As happy as she is on the island, she wants to be back in New York more than she'll ever admit. She wishes she'd found her father first. The night of Atia's party remains a total blank for her, and that's the way she likes it. Although she's spent more time in clubs than ballrooms, she's had to learn how to tango, foxtrot and waltz, among other things. For a little while, when she was younger, she played soccer. She's kind of sorry she missed her senior prom. She has a knack for just not thinking of the things she's afraid of. If there's one silver lining in Georgina's having been on the island, it's that it made her move forward and notice Beat. When they were little, she and Blair used to dress up as princesses, and Serena was always Sleeping Beauty.
It bothers her that Nate sees the island as just a stop on the way back to real life, but she still expects that she'll get back to Manhattan someday. She wants to teach English in Asia, but it's really just one of lots of possible careers she's thought up. Her drink of choice, depending on the occasion, is either a martini or a redheaded slut, but she's not picky. No matter how much she claims she's different, she's as good at scheming as any of the others. Sometimes even she doesn't realize how manipulative she's being. What she really wants is to matter to someone exactly as she is, not for what she's been or might be or what she owns or how she looks. No one knows her better than her brother and Blair do. She can come off terribly flighty, but it's mostly just a kind of willfulness. She truly believes everyone deserves a second chance. If Eric hadn't tried to kill himself, it would have been much, much longer before Serena came home.
Contrary to popular belief, she has never actually slept with either a bullfighter or one of her boarding school professors. Her favorite movies are Marie-Antoinette and Rear Window. No matter how many people die or nearly die around her, she's never given any thought to the fact of her own mortality. It took some getting used to, but she doesn't really mind Chuck being her step-brother anymore. Back when she was still dating Dan, she hardly noticed Jenny at all. If she had a five minute window in which she could choose to go home, she'd lose the chance to indecision. She prefers coffee (black and sweet) to tea. She really doesn't pay all that much attention to her hair and clothes. Just because she knows that she couldn't have saved Pete doesn't mean she doesn't feel guilty even now. She may not know or like it, but she's still her mother's daughter.