| Cecily von Ziegesar | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar June 1970 (age 41) Norwalk, Connecticut |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 2002 - present |
| Genres | Drama, Comedy, Short, Romance |
| Notable work(s) | Gossip Girl series The It Girl series |
| Children | Agnes, Oscar |
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Cecily von Ziegesar (born Cecily Brooke von Ziegesar on 27 June 1970)[1] is an American author best known for the young adult Gossip Girl books.
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Von Ziegesar was born in Norwalk, Connecticut.[2] Her childhood dream was to grow up to be a ballerina; she began lessons at age 3 and auditioned for the School of American Ballet at age 8, but was rejected.[3] As a teenager, she commuted to Manhattan at 6 a.m. to attend The Nightingale-Bamford School.[4] After graduating from Nightingale, Von Ziegesar attended Colby College. Then she spent a year in Budapest working for a local radio station.She then returned to the United States to study creative writing at the University of Arizona, only to drop out shortly thereafter.[4]
In New York City, while working at book-packaging firm Alloy Entertainment, she became inspired to create the Gossip Girl series, which present a view of high-end teenage lifestyles. The series climbed to the top of The New York Times Best-Sellers list in 2002. The spin-off, The It Girl, made the list in 2005.
The Constance Billard School for Girls is based on an exaggerated version of her alma mater, Nightingale.
In October 2011, von Ziegesar released a spin-off of the first novel: Psycho Killer.
Gossip Girl was adapted for television in 2007. The show premiered to mixed reviews and lost more than a million viewers from episode one to two, from 3.65 million[5] to 2.55 million.[6] The rest of the season's viewers went up and down, the highest being 3 million viewers for the season finale and the lowest being 1.80 million viewers for episode eleven.
Controversy and criticism surrounding the show surfaced due to the fact that it failed to show much of the books' plots, character personalities, and other major and minor facts, thus disappointing many fans of the novels. However, von Ziegesar told ABC News that her major plot lines were there and that "at least it takes place in New York".[7]
In early 2011, The CW renewed the series for a fifth season. On May 16, 2011, Ziegesar herself made a cameo for the fourth season finale.[8]
In December 2009, Yen Press announced that it was working with Korean artist Baek Hye-Kyung to create a graphic novel adaptation of the series titled Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only. Rather than adapting the original novels, however, the graphic novels will feature original stories with the same characters. It will be serialized in the company's anthology magazine Yen Plus, with the first chapter appearing in the January 2010 issue.[9]
She resides in Brooklyn with her husband Richard, the Deputy Director of the Public Art Fund,[10] their children, Agnes and Oscar,[11] and their two Cornish Rex cats.[1] Von Ziegesar also owns an Appaloosa horse, Golden Rain. She is dreams of having a 'ranch full of cattle' when retired.
Note: This series is Ghostwritten.
Note: This series is actually written by Annabelle Vestry, though Cecily von Ziegesar's name appears on the spine and front cover.
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