Blake Christina Lively (born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. She stars in the book-based TV series Gossip Girl as Serena van der Woodsen. She has also appeared in several films including Accepted and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as well as its sequel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.

Lively was born in 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 Robin, 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 stated 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 Disney Land twice a week as an opportunity "to have some extra time to bond" with Lively, due to all the time Lively spent there, she felt that she'd "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."