“Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite.”

Just about every teenage girl knows the words of Kristen Bell that are said at the beginning of each Gossip Girl episode and their eyes light up to the sound.
Some say that Gossip Girl is overrated or a bad influence for teens today.
The overrated part? No way. The reputation of Gossip Girl isn’t an award winning reputation, but an entertaining one. It’s impossible to deny that Gossip Girl is entertaining because once you’re hooked, you binge watch it until you reach Season 6, Episode 10- the final episode.
Bad influence? Totally. But that’s part of the charm. Majority of the viewers don’t look to Gossip Girl for life role models, except when it comes to appearance. Because everyone knows that “the Upper East side” isn’t for everyone.
The advertisements for Season 2 of Gossip Girl took advantage of being a racy and inappropriate show. In a genius way, the advertisements embraced the fact that Gossip Girl is “Every Parent’s Nightmare”, “A Nasty Piece of Work”, and “Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate.”
The target audience of Gossip Girl is teenage girls- most of which would never even venture into the dark lives that are shown on TV. To those girls, Gossip Girl is a look into a life that they’ll never have, that they’ll never understand.
The idea that Gossip Girl shouldn’t be watched because it is too raunchy is crazy because parents can’t protect their children from the reality of society and as hard as they try, it will never happen. Truth be told, the more parents try and hide something from their kids, the more they want to know about it.
Not only did Gossip Girl flourish when it was airing weekly on the CW, but it’s doing just as well years after the finale. Turns out, Gossip Girl is an internet sensation. New viewers are being attracted even after new episodes stopped coming.
The fact that you can watch the whole series in a week is both amazing and frightening.
To put it all out there, watching and finishing Gossip Girl in 2 weeks was my most embarrassing and accomplished moment. But honestly, Gossip Girl changed my outlook on what it meant to have it all. It sounds naive but through all the inappropriate content- in the end the characters all learn what it means to have it all, not the wealth and fame, but the love and care and regardless of wealth or connections. They realize that those things are not what contribute to a fulfilling life.