Cecily von Ziegesar herself attended one of the smart private schools in Manhattan, New York, and many of the tales told in Gossip Girl have a ring of authenticity. After leaving school, von Ziegesar went to Colby Collge, a small, liberal arts college in Maine. After she left college, she spent a year working for a radio station in Budapest. She then returned to the US and studied creative writing at the University of Arizona. She went to live in London for a short while and worked for a publishing company. Upon returning to the US she moved to New York and started working for a book packaging firm which specialised in coming up with ideas for fictional series. It was while she was working there that she came up with the idea for the Gossip Girl series.
Cecily von Ziegesar was born in New York City in a family with Jewish-Hungarian origins. Her childhood dream was to grow up to be a ballerina; she began lessons at age 3 and auditioned for the School of American Ballet at age 8, but was rejected.As a teenager, she commuted to Manhattan at 6 a.m. to attend The Nightingale-Bamford School.After graduating from Nightingale, Von Ziegesar attended Colby College. Then she spent a year in Budapest working for a local radio station. She then returned to the United States to study creative writing at the University of Arizona, only to drop out shortly thereafter
"It admonished her to abstain from gossip and a spirit of contradiction, which, while disagreeable in everyone, was especially so in the fair sex''; to be careful not to be too quick and passionate in conversation, or too inquisitive; and to endeavour that Cheerfullness, Sweetness, and Modesty be always blended in your countenance and Air.'' It gave special directions for her conduct when with men, advising: Be careful of maintaining that strict Watch over your Eyes, Words, and Heart, that they may not in the least perceive you have any special Regard for them.'' Men, it warned, took great pleasure in being thought irresistable lovers, and in gaining victories over the most rigid virtue''; therefore, the young lady should put little confidence in what they promised, and when fine things were said to her, should acquit yourself by a gentle Smile accompanied with a Blush, to shew that you are neither a Prude or a Coquette.'' When questioned on the subject of matrimony, without betraying any personal inclination, she should reply that she was not the person to be consulted upon such a Head'', but rather her father and mother, whose will she would always make her own." Julia Cherry Spruill)
"The life of Serena van der Woodsen is like the most complicated Jane Austen novel ever." -- Juliet, to Nate
Jenny Humphries Book read: "Sense and Sense Ability and Sea Monsters" by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
"Wait, you do what? I go to Europe for three months and you turn from Jane Austen to Anaïs Nin. Is there anything Chuck Bass can't get you to do?" – Serena van der Woodsen
"You always loved Jane Austen" "As literature not my life" Eleanor Waldorf to daughter Blair in series finale May 2012
