Blake Lively has managed to pull off the impossible. It used to be rare for a television star to make the crossover to movie stardom. From George Clooney to Will Smith, few actors in the 90s pulled off that feat. And while it’s a bit more common now, only a select group have soared from teen drama to A-List status.

In recent years, we can point to stars like Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and Charles Melton as proof that there’s life beyond the soapy high school drama. But let’s be honest: they’d be nothing and nowhere without the original cast of Gossip Girl.

The 2000s drama was ahead of the curve. Shows like Succession and White Lotus have taken up its mantle by commenting on the lives of the elite from the inside but those prep school kids blazed the trail. And leading the pack, forever changing what we think of Grand Central Station, is Blake Lively.

Decades later, she’s still on top. She’s a beloved A-Lister with an enviable marriage, an even more enviable friend group (Taylor, if you’re looking for more besties look no further), and a thriving career.

But how did she go from preppy headbands to Hollywood royalty? And, even more recently, why does her career feel like it’s always on an insane upward trajectory? Especially when, if we have to admit it, she’s not the greatest actress around. Likability and beauty can get you far — but Blake’s career is astounding. Is she really all that or is she just… really pretty?

Blake Lively’s Rise to Fame

Before she was Blake Lively: Hollywood Icon™, she was still the coolest girl on our screens. Her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was pivotal for millennials everywhere. Alongside America Ferrera (Hey Barbie!), Amber Tamblyn, and Alexis Bledel, this ultimate girl gang rivaled her current Swift squad. We all wanted to be them. We all wanted to wear her pants.

She retained that mantle of being unattainably cool in her pivotal role: Gossip Girl.

As Serena van der Woodsen, Lively became the ultimate It Girl. Just like her character, she was the epitome of elite 2000s girlhood. She was like Paris and Nicole with an old-money sophistication. She was all bandage dresses and blowouts both on screen and off. Who didn’t try to recreate at least one of Serena’s outfits — and with disastrous results! — in the show’s heyday?

Post Gossip Girl, Blake faced the stingy choices available to young female stars once their adolescent drama rolled its final credits. For women, the desire to grow up in the public’s eyes leads to a string of sexualized roles. Or, the need to branch out manifests in less-than-successful career pivots — sorry to Leighton Meester’s one song.

While Blake didn’t go any of these routes, she didn’t make the splash she yearned for, either. She did a string of subpar movies that are not worth the watch. She starred as a perpetually beautiful woman who didn’t age in The Age of Adaline — kind of a reverse Benjamin Button except her biggest problem was staying hot forever. Then she starred in the clunky, Gone Girl-esque thriller A Simple Favor alongside Anna Kendrick. Though critics panned it for its nonsensical plot, confusing characters, and flat acting, it found cult fans on streaming and is even an iconic role for many fans — even recently announcing a sequel (we’ll get to that).

She also had forgettable roles as the hot love interest in films like The Town, a cult Boston crime film for which she put on an okay Boston accent, and Savages, a movie recently revived by Netflix.

As her most notable works post Gossip Girl, this isn’t the most robust resume. Yet Blake has retained A-List status. I wouldn’t call her an It-Girl, she’s not out partying or having abrat summer, but every time she steps out, she makes headlines. At this point, she’s known as much for her idyllic marriage with Ryan Reynolds and her friendship with Taylor Swift. Her daughter even has a feature in Taylor Swift’s “Gorgeous” — probably a bigger career credit than anything Blake has appeared in since Gossip Girl.

Meanwhile, many of her Gossip Girl castmates have found success beyond the series. Penn Badgley stars as the creepy serial killer Joe in Netflix’s You. As one of the streamer’s biggest shows, Penn has been catapulted back into the hearts of audiences everywhere — even if his character isn’t the typical heartthrob. Chace Crawford is subverting his pretty-boy looks in The Boys on Amazon, another smash hit series. His character, The Deep, is disturbed and dumb, and played with a brilliant blend of criticism and compassion by Crawford, who doesn’t merely rely on his looks … though he definitely could.

Not to mention her Sisterhood co-star America Ferrera starring in Barbie, the hottest movie of last summer, and being nominated for an Academy Award. Not her first award buzz, never forget Ferrera’s Emmy-nominated turn as Betty Suarez in Ugly Betty, one of the most addictive shows of the 2000s.

With everyone else in her orbit going on to transcend their roots and prove their actual talent, why hasn’t Blake done the same? And however has she managed to stay the most relevant? So the question is: Is she actually a solid actress, or are we all just distracted by how outrageously gorgeous she is? It’s like when your crush says something and you laugh even though it wasn’t funny. Are we all just crushing on Blake Lively?

Blake Lively Is The Queen of the Met Gala: Why did she skip Met 2024?

Testament to her enduring A-List status, Lively is one of the people’s favorites at The Met Gala, which she generally attends with her husband year after year. As one of the biggest and most exclusive annual events on the planet, only a handful of celebrities are invited to the Met steps each and every year. Blake is one of the lucky few.

Usually, the invite list is determined by who was most relevant that year. Whose press tour dominated culture and fashion headlines? What musicians were everywhere? Who were the industry It-Girls? Lively hasn’t fit that bill since the 2010s, yet there she is, smiling on the Met Steps each and every year.

It makes some sense when you consider how viral Lively’s looks go every year. She’s an easy muse — so designers never miss when dressing her. Therefore her absence at the 2024 Met Gala was remarkable. Many were hoping she’d revive the success of her most memorable gown from the Heavenly Bodies exhibit. But alas, nothing. Some speculated a falling out with Anna. Others, another pregnancy. Or was Blake finally just … uninvited?

Turns out, she was just busy being a mom and working on her various projects. I’ll admit, I was skeptical when I heard this. What projects? Lively’s biggest projects are The Met and Kansas Chief’s games. Sometimes I think she’s as much of a nepo bestie as Travis Kelce is a nepo boyfriend. But I recently ate my words. Blake Lively has a stacked Q2 — proving we too can finish the year strong even if we were lagging in the first half.

Blake’s Been Busy: Everything Blake Lively has been up to in 2024

So what are all these projects Lively is so busy with? Surprisingly, a slate of blockbuster films and a brand new business. She’s already embarked upon various press tours, which is why she’s everywhere right now.

Her most prominent, and controversial, venture for the year: starring in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s blockbuster It Ends With Us. This BookTok favorite is divisive to say the least. While Colleen Hoover’s genre of easy-to-read romantic fiction went viral, the literati aren’t a fan. The main point of contention: the writing is stinko. But to each their own. And on this particular book, Hoover’s critics are accusing of profiting from abuse and trauma because the film romanticizes an abusive relationship.

Yet, the power of BookTok compelled the studios to adapt this novel into a big budget movie starring Lively alongside Justin Baldwin, known for Jane The Virgin. For a minute, thanks to last year’s succession of strikes, it looked as though the movie might be scrapped. Call it Lively’s luck, but production continued against all odds and here we are: moments away from its big premiere.

Watch the Trailer for It Ends With Us here:

But that’s not the only press tour Blake is on. She joined her husband Ryan Reynolds on the press tour for Deadpool and Wolverine, even upstaging Reynolds and his co-star Hugh Jackman with her look for the final premiere.

Alongside Gigi Hadid, she appeared on the red carpet at Lady Deadpool. Little did we know, this was a hint of things to come. In case you forgot (I definitely did) Lively had a brief role as Lady Deadpool in the canonically awful Green Lantern films. She kind of reprised the role as the voice of Lady Deadpool in this new movie — just one of many cameos and Easter eggs in Marvel’s latest bloated action flick.

When not campaigning for wife-of-the-year, bestie of the year, or promoting It Ends With Us, she’s been filming the much-awaited sequel to A Simple Favor. She and Anna Kendrick have reprised their roles: mysterious Hot Mom (Lively, obviously) and Bored Mommy Blogger (Kendrick in an abundance of floral sundresses and wedges).

This sequel comes so long after the original because, despite the initial bad reviews, it found another life on streaming platforms. So, get ready to comfort-watch or hate-watch when it comes out — I’ll be doing both.

But Blake isn’t only trying to pump some much needed life back into her acting career. She’s enetered her Business Mogul Era. She’s already founded the brands Betty Buzz and Betty Booze and now she’s branching into beauty. Known for her scorching flowing locks, why wouldn’t she make a haircare brand?

The collection is called Blake Brown Beauty after her maiden name — which Reynolds joked he only just found out. Priced at $25 and under, Blake Brown Beauty is launching exclusively in Target to corner the affordable haircare market. The line consists of shampoos, masks and styling product. If there’s one thing the world needs more of, it’s celebrity beauty brands, right?

Promising to give the world that Blake Lively shine, the brand is a departure form many DTC celebrity beauty ventures, such as Cecred by Beyonce, Rate Beauty by Selena Gomez, or Hailey Bieber’s rhode. Instead, Blake is doing what she does best: going for mass appeal. It’s worked so far, might as well bet the house (or the hair) on it. But let’s be real, unless her shampoos come with a personal stylist and a Hollywood paycheck, we might just be setting ourselves up for disappointment.

This approach is similar to another celebrity whose success Blake takes major cues from: Jennifer Aniston. Before there was Serena, there was Rachel. From inspiring trends to becoming the people’s princess, Aniston and Lively have a lot in common. Namely that they’ve built gigantic careers on an average amount of talent. Pretty privilege is really kind to some.

Now, I’m no hater. I love looking at beautiful people as much as the next person. But as we brace ourselves for a Blake resurgence, someone has to say it: she’s prettier than she is talented.

The truth is, Blake Lively, like Jennifer Aniston, has found her niche. She’s good at being likable, at being the girl next door (if the girl next door lived in a mansion and was married to Deadpool). And in Hollywood, that’s a skill in itself.

So, is Blake Lively overrated? Maybe. Is she the second coming of Meryl Streep? Probably not. But is she good at what she does? Absolutely.

At the end of the day, Blake Lively is like that really pretty, really nice girl from high school who you want to hate but simply can’t. She’s not changing the world, but she’s not trying to. She’s just out here, living her best life, making us all wish we could pull off headbands and making Ryan Reynolds Instagram posts slightly more tolerable.

So here’s to you, Blake Lively. You may not be perfect, you may not be revolutionary, but damn it, you’re doing your thing. And sometimes, that’s enough.

So while I won’t be tuning into her latest slate of films or buying her beauty brand, I’ll be enjoying her press tour simply for the opportunity to decide which of her looks hit, and which of them miss.