black women center: Blake Lively Early life and career

Blake Lively born August 25, 1987 is an American actress and model. She currently stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the book-based TV drama Gossip Girl. She has also starred in movies, including Accepted, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (as well as its sequel), and Ben Affleck's The Town.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Filmography
* 5 Awards
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Early life
Lively was born in Tarzana, Los Angeles to actors Ernie and Elaine Lively. She was raised as a Southern Baptist. The youngest of five siblings, Lively has a brother, Eric, two half-sisters, Lori and Robyn, and a half-brother, Jason. Both of her parents and all of her siblings are, or have been, in the entertainment industry. During Lively's childhood, her parents would take her with them to acting classes that they taught because they didn't want to leave her with a babysitter. Lively said that watching her parents teach acting classes helped her learn the "drills" of acting and gain confidence as she got older. Lively stated that as a child, her mother would bring her to Disneyland twice a week as an opportunity "to have some extra time to bond"; Lively has stated, due to all the time she spent there, she felt that she "grew up at Disneyland."
Lively's mother, who was a former model from Georgia, inspired Lively to have an interest in clothes when she was a child. During Lively's childhood, her mother would sew clothes and dress her with garments from boutiques and vintage stores. She also tailored adult clothes to fit her. Lively has stated, "She just did that because she was so creative and because she didn't want me to be dressed in big T-shirts cinched with a plastic clip like all the rest of the kids."Lively has stated that, due to her wardrobe, when she attended a private school in Los Angeles in second grade for the first and only time in her life she did not fit in. "It was the only school where people were just downright mean to me [...] They would make fun of my clothes because I dressed differently than the other kids."
During Lively's childhood, she attended 13 different schools. When she was three years old, her mother enrolled her in the first grade because Lively's older brother was supposed to start school, but he didn't want to go alone. Her mother told the school Lively was six since she "was so tall". After a few weeks, her teachers "said they would have to put me in mentally disabled classes because I wasn't up to pace with the rest of the kids," and they thought that she "was slow because all I wanted to do was sleep while the other kids were doing their projects." Shortly afterwards Lively's mother took her out of the school. Lively attended Burbank High School in Burbank; while attending the school, Lively participated in Burbank High School's show choir, In Sync, and was a cheerleader. When Blake was fifteen years old, her older brother Eric took her out of school for two months to go on a grand tour of Europe. While on the trip, Eric used most of the time trying to talk Lively into having an acting career.
Blake Lively was not at all interested in acting but during the summer between her junior and senior years, her brother, Eric, made his agent send her out on a few auditions over a period of a few months; of the few auditions, she got the role of Bridget for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Lively filmed her scenes in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants between her junior and senior years at Burbank High. In 2008, Lively stated that, while attending college isn't in her immediate future due to her Gossip Girl filming commitment, she hasn't altogether put aside the idea of attending school at Stanford, Dartmouth, or Columbia. She stated that attending Columbia University one day a week is a possibility and the option of being able to attend the school was a factor in accepting her role on Gossip Girl; however, she has not yet enrolled in any classes.
Career
A young blonde female wearing an orange dress. The female is making a hand gesture with her right hand.
Lively at the New York premiere of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 on August 8, 2008 in New York City. Lively's performance in the film gained praise from critics.
Lively began her acting career at age 11, when she appeared in the 1998 film Sandman, which was directed by Lively's father. Lively describes her role in the film as having been a "bit part".After not having any involvement with acting for almost seven years, Lively appeared in the film adaptation of the novel of the same name, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005. Lively, appearing with America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel, played Bridget, one of the four female leads. Lively's performance in the film earned her a nomination for a Teen Choice Award for "Choice Movie Breakout - Female." With a box office revenue of $42 million, the film was Lively's biggest commercially successful film until it was out-grossed by its sequel.
In 2006, she co-starred with Justin Long in Accepted, and Lively, along with her older siblings Robyn, Ernie and Lori, had minor roles in the horror film, Simon Says. While Accepted wasn't well received by critics, Lively's performance was, earning her an award from Hollywood Life, in the category of 'Breakthrough Award'. In 2007, Lively played one of the two title characters in Elvis and Anabelle as Anabelle, a bulimic girl who hoped to win a beauty pageant. Lively said of getting into character for the role that she'd 'shed serious weight' for her height. Lively recalled that: "Beauty queens are still very toned [...] So I lost weight, but I got toned. It was the healthiest I’ve ever been. I just made chicken breasts from Whole Foods on a George Foreman Grill, with asparagus and broccoli.” Lively stated that that process was difficult for her because food is “the No. 1 love of my life.” MovieLine.com praised her performance in the film and credited it as having been her "breakthrough role".
Lively was cast in the CW's series Gossip Girl which premiered in September 2007. She plays Serena van der Woodsen in the teen drama. While rumors of infighting among the Gossip Girl co-stars have circulated in the tabloids, Lively denies that there is any unfriendly competition on-set. “The media is always trying to pit us against each other," she said, "I guess because it’s just not interesting to say, ‘Everyone gets along; everybody just works 18-hour days and goes home to sleep.’ That’s not fun to read, I guess.” Her first magazine cover was the November 2007 issue of Cosmo Girl, where she discussed her time in high school and her career prior to Gossip Girl.
In 2008, Lively, along with Ferrera, Bledel and Tamblyn, reprised their roles in the 2008 sequel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Similar to the first film, Lively, her three costars and the film were positively received by critics. As of November 2009, the film had earned over $44 million at the box office, taking in slightly more that its predecessor and thus becoming Lively's most commercially successful film to date. In 2009, Lively appeared as Gabrielle DiMarco, a minor role in the romantic comedy, New York, I Love You, a sequel to the 2006 film Paris, je t'aime consisting of an ensemble cast, . The ensemble cast included Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, and Orlando Bloom. Similar to the film's predecessor, the film is composed of short films along the theme of finding love.Despite positive reception from critics, the film had a poor box office performance.[