Gossip Girl Granny: What Leighton Meester Will Look Like as She Ages

At only 23, Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester has the role of the high school queen bee down pat. With beauty and attitude on her side, the actress shows that growing up gorgeously is definitely a matter of style. Watch her transform from a sassy 20-year-old to a seasoned 40 and beyond - thanks to a few digital enhancements - as she dispels the rumors floating around her own life. How much does she have in common with her Upper East Side alter-ego, Blair Waldorf? She sets it straight.



  • On Attitude

Blair: Prime and proper with a wild side.

Leighton: "I've never been crazy. I'm a very good girl, to be honest. I don't do anything to hurt anybody. Honestly, all I ever do is work."

And the alleged sex tape? "[The tape] is not real," she says bluntly, "so it makes me sort of sad. It's unfortunate that it got carried as far as it did." She pauses. "I definitely understand the nature of people better now and that the mere allegation of something like that could be headline news. People think it's real because somebody says it is."

  • On Fashion

Blair: Headbands, tights, and couture galore.

Leighton: Has she ever, like Blair, worn white tights out of the house? "Er, no." She did sport a puffy-sleeved red-print Louis Vuitton ensemble with matching leggings to the Costume Institute gala (her only competitor that night in the just-do-it stakes: Madonna in LV's bunny ears). "If I don't take risks with fashion, where the hell am I going to take risks?" she asks. "I love Stella McCartney, Chloé, the Row, Lanvin, and Calvin Klein." She has also been wearing Spanish designer Emilio de la Morena -- to the MTV Movie Awards and out and about in New York City.

  • On Love

Blair: A near-Shakespearean drama between Blair and her pastel-clad Romeo, Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) "We've been fake shagging for a year and a half now," says Westwick of his costar.

Leighton: Her real-life beau, actor Sebastian Stan, plays Gossip Girl character Carter Baizen. Beyond that confirmation, Leighton keeps her love life under wraps.

Whatever their similarities or differences, one thing we learned from the real-life Leighton is this: she doesn't mind growing older (and still looks so chic in this digitally-aged picture!). "Any fear of aging, I think, is simply vanity," she says. "Because what comes with age is so many wonderful things: wisdom, understanding. ... Every year, I'm always happy to be done with the previous age," she says. "Sixty, that doesn't seem old to me. I think it comes from my mom going, That's not old! She's in her 50s, but she looks like she's in her early 40s."

Don't miss photos of how Leighton might look as the years go on, from Harper's Bazaar.

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