Actress.
Fashion guru.
Entrepreneur.
Mom.
There are several words to describe starlet Blake Lively, and all of them are pretty fabulous.
She has mastered being super successful, but seemingly stayed down to earth.
In just over a decade, Lively has gone from AP-enrolled high school student and burgeoning
actress, to an iconic role model and fashionista.
Let's take a look at the stunning transformation of Blake Lively.
Actress, Student, Dork
After a small role in the 1998 film Sandman, Lively had her first big break in the movie
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in 2005.
Despite the buzz from the best-selling book turned movie, Lively was not one to let her
potential success go to her head.
In her mind, school still came first.
She told MovieWeb,
"I've been so busy with high school and I'm in all the clubs there, I'm in all AP classes,
I've been in cheer, choir and class president so my past four years at high school have
been very busy.
I left prom last night to come here."
Even more telling, perhaps, is her perception of herself at that age.
When MovieWeb asked what it was like to be "the ideal tall, striking long blond hair
girl," Lively responded,
"I don't think of myself as that.
I don't like people to see that.
I'm such a dork.
I'm such a loser."
Gossip Girl without the drama
By 2007, Lively's fame and celebrity status was taking off.
She continued to be in films, such as Elvis and Anabelle, but her biggest role came with
the series premiere of Gossip Girl.
Lively played the main character, Serena van der Woodsen.
She was poised.
She was glamorous.
She was…nothing like the small-town girl that spent her time in high school going to
school fundraisers and football games, which is what she told Buddy TV in an interview.
"Serena was brought up very differently than I was brought up…Serena was given everything
her whole life…"
In fact, even with fame right in front of her, Lively always kept things in perspective.
She told People,
"I think that I strive to do the right thing and not fall into the norm [like] so many
young people in Hollywood who … get caught up in some of the nonsense."
Serious props to Lively for always keeping things in perspective.
A fashionista is born
Although Lively saw quite a few differences between herself and her Gossip Girl character,
there is one thing they had in common — their wardrobe.
During an interview with W Magazine in 2008, executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie
Savage revealed the real hook for Lively joining the show was the fact that she might actually
get to keep some of her character’s designer wardrobe.
The 21-year-old told the magazine,
"I probably have, like, 60 gorgeous bags…I have a closet with my really sharp, fancy,
nice ones — the ones that go with my Valentino pumps, for example.
And then I have a closet with the ones that are a little more rugged-feeling, the kind
that go with my Belstaff motorcycle boots."
Looks like she’s gotten quite comfortable in Serena van der Woodsen’s shoes...
Golden girl
Some hairstyles are so popular, so desired, so revered, that we request them by name to
our hairdressers.
First there was the "Farrah."
Then the "Rachel."
Next up — the "Blake."
Lively has those luscious, blonde locks.
The kind that bounce when she walks and shine in the bright Hollywood lights.
The New York Times spoke with a variety of hair salons in New York City in 2009 and found
that multiple salons were getting requests for their ‘do to look just like Lively’s.
Manhattan salon owner John Barrett described Lively's look as "aspirational hair."
He continued to say that clients "don't just want the hair, they want the life."
The New York Times also discovered that at the time of the article in 2009, the Google
search of "Blake Lively hair" showed 713,000 results.
The self-proclaimed "dork’s" reaction?
"I didn't really realize the extent of it…That's always kind of odd, but unbelievably flattering."
Acting methods
Though she was a pro by 2010, 23-year-old Lively still felt she had a lot to learn when
it came to acting.
She shared her thoughts with USA Today, saying,
"I'm not a method actor who's all tortured and traumatized between takes…I thought
I was actually wrong for not being that way.
I thought if it was true acting, you had to do that."
Her "aha" moment came during her role in the film The Town.
She played a woman who lived an unbelievably hard life.
At the end of the day, she learned she had to separate herself from her character.
Lively explains,
"The idea of living that life was so tragic that it was just nice to go home to my own
bed and have an appreciation for my life and my world and my upbringing…"
Saying 'I do'
The year 2012 was a big one in the actress's life.
Lively married her equally gorgeous, equally down-to-earth, partner in crime, Ryan Reynolds.
E! News reported the secret ceremony took place in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with
just close friends and her manager as witnesses.
Isn’t it just like Lively to keep her wedding on the D.L.?
Telling stories
By 2013, she had tackled acting, fashion, and marriage.
Gossip Girl was over.
And she was ready for something completely different.
Enter Preserve, her latest passion project.
She broke the news to Vogue about it even before it was launched:
"Part digital monthly magazine, part e-commerce venture, part video blog, the site will seek
out and celebrate people all over America who are making things — food, clothes, pillows,
dishes, dining-room tables—with their hands."
Humble as always, she made it very clear to Vogue before the launch that this website
was not about her.
Its purpose was to be a place for storytelling, a place where people could learn and be exposed
to what they don’t see every day.
Self-styling
For such a fashionable starlet, Lively does not have a celebrity stylist.
The reason?
Because she wanted the job for herself.
She told People in 2014 why it’s so hard for her to outsource this work to somebody
else.
"It would be like making a cake and then handing it off to someone else to ice and decorate.
Why would you do that?"
Lively's style picks have been so on-point that it’s hard to argue with her.
And with somebody as stunning as Lively, you’d think it would all look good on her.
Not according to her.
"There are things that I see on Kate Moss and think, 'I have to have that,' but when
I try it on me I look like a potato…I don't like to wear things that don't look right
on my body…"
Well, it's very hard to believe that's the case, but we'll take Lively's word for it.
Boss girl
By 2015, the media had all their attention on her entrepreneurial project, Preserve.
With a platform to stand on, Lively took the opportunity to speak up about women in business.
She talked candidly with Stylist:
"If you look at the facts, women spend the most on e-commerce sites, yet less than 30
percent of the companies that venture capitalists fund are female-driven, even though female-run
companies are the most successful."
Toward the end of 2015, the 28-year-old swallowed her pride and closed her site down.
She again spoke with Vogue about the big decision, admitting that Preserve was not as impactful
as she hoped it would be, and that she had no intention of putting out a product that
she and her team weren’t proud of.
"The only time I've ever done something and felt real reward is when I've done something
that's incredibly risky, because without great risks it's impossible to have huge success."
Class prez to class act
There's one way to sum up what we know about Blake Lively — she's perfect in every way
and can do no wrong.
Okay, that may not be exactly true, but we’re close, right?
In 2016, she and Ryan Reynolds gave birth to their second child.
Though she has a lot on her plate, family continues to be the number one priority.
She told Marie Claire,
"All my eggs are in one basket, and that's my family.
That's where my heart is.
That's where my everything is."
But that doesn’t mean her acting career is slowing down.
In June of 2016 she starred in The Shallows, a beach thriller in which she stars as a stranded
surfer under shark attack.
From class president to television’s "it" girl, movie star to fashion icon, business
mogul to mom – Lively appears as though she’s done it all.
But we’re guessing that she doesn’t feel that way.
If you had this much talent and beauty, why would you call it quits yet?
No way.
She's just getting started.
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