Serena Celia van der Woodsen

Serena Celia van der Woodsen is a main character in Gossip Girl and the book series of the same name. The character is portrayed by Blake Lively in the television series.

Novel
In the Novel Series Serena comes back from Boarding School for seemingly unknown reasons that are later shown in a prequel. When she comes home she suddenly realizes how much has changed. She is often 'given' the good things which makes her best friend Blair furious when she has to work for them, Serena goes to Yale at the end of the series. She goes through boys very quickly, her biggest lover is Nate; her best friend's boyfriend whom she lost her virginity to.

Personality
Unlike Blair, who is considered to be the show's antiheroine, Serena can be considered more as a traditional heroine. Her motives are rarely selfish and she truly wants to be a better person. Also, her negative actions are generally motivated by a lack of foresight rather than real malice. However Serena is often seen to get things without working for them, for instance she got into Yale and Blair didn't. She also gets the guys and has made a few enemies in her time. She is always there for her family and is especially protective of her brother, she has become closer to Chuck since he was adopted into the family in Season 2 and is close with her step-father Rufus who is a lot more prominent to her than her actual father. Serena has recently shown another side of herself, sticking up for herself and for Ben. She has argued with Dan and with Eric, the two who normally protect her and she normally allows to.

Season 1
When first introduced in the show's pilot episode, Serena is returning from a self-imposed year at boarding school in Connecticut. She is the daughter of Lily van der Woodsen, a wealthy socialite. Serena also has a troubled younger brother called Eric. Lily and Serena were first seen living in the New York Palace Hotel, while Eric was in a clinic after a suicide attempt. While Eric was the real reason for Serena's abrupt return, other rumours came about. After some the former It-Girl reunited with her estranged best friend Blair Waldorf, who didn't know Serena was leaving for boarding school until she was already gone. However, their friendship was shattered shortly afterwards when Blair finds out that shortly before she left town, a drunken Serena slept with Blair's boyfriend, Nate Archibald, who supposedly always had a thing for Serena. This leads to the two girls being locked in a rivalry once again. Meanwhile, Serena meets and goes out on a date with Brooklyn outsider Dan Humphrey after he returned her lost cellphone. The date ends up with them heading to the Dan's father's concert, but they are interrupted when his sister Jenny repeatedly texts Dan asking for help. When Dan and Serena show up at the Kiss on the Lips party they blew off, they find Chuck Bass forcing himself onto Jenny. Dan punches Chuck, while Serena warns Chuck to stay away from Jenny.In response, Chuck calls a slut and tells her that her life is over. Georgina has recently returned from rehab in Switzerland, and expects her friendship with Serena to be back to its old state. However, Serena insists that she's not the same person anymore, knowing how much trouble she and Georgina used to get into. Not liking this, Georgina persuades Serena to go out with her, and spikes her drink with liquid ecstacy when Serena isn't looking. Serena wakes up the next morning, having missed her SATs. Realising that Georgina was behind it, Serena confronts her, letting Georgina know that their friendship is officially over. Furious, Georgina brings up a scandal they were both involved in. Serena leaves her apartment distressed, while hiding everything from Dan. This leads to Georgina calling herself 'Sarah' and starting up a friendship with Dan, who has no clue about her true identity. Georgina gives Serena a flash drive, supposedly containing footage of the real reason Serena left Manhattan. At a dinner with the Lily, Eric and Serena, Georgina 'accidentally' lets it slip that Eric is gay. Serena supports her brother while Lily doesn't know how to react. When Serena goes to meet Sarah, Dan's new friend, Serena is shocked to discover that it's actually Georgina. Georgina then threatens to show Dan the tape, and tells Serena that either they rekindle their friendship the way it was left, or everything will be revealed. With no-one else to turn to, Serena tells Blair her secret: she killed someone. Immediately after this, Serena leaves for a club and parties hard, leaving with several guys. Serena eventually tells her mother the whole story, and they talk to Pete's parents, who don't blame her at all for Pete's death. Her guilt absolved, Serena goes to a concert featuring Rufus in order to win Dan back. She just misses Dan but gets a call from him at the concert. It's Georgina at the other end of the line, but Serena says that she's ready to tell the full truth, so she doesn't care about Georgina's blackmail threat. An enraged Georgina pulls Dan outside, still pretending to be Sarah, and kisses him. Confused and hurt, Serena is left wondering at the concert. At the Bass-van der Woodsen wedding, Serena and Dan ignores the majority problems of their relationship. Leaving him making a final desicion, Dan breaks up with Serena.

Season 2
The first episode of the second season begins in the Hamptons, where Serena is rumored to be dating Nate but is in fact a ruse for Nate to have affair with an older woman. Meanwhile, she reflects throughout the summer and Dan cannot stop thinking about Serena, resolving to go to the Hamptons. After a few mishaps during the White party, two resume their relationship. The couple's return to New York has them return to old issues as Dan gives in to the polarity of their relationship being strained because of Serena's wealthy background and Dan's inability to accept the polarity of their relationship. The two end their relationship at an elevator during Blair's party, having succumbed to their issues during a blackout (The Dark Night). Serena begins a romance with Aaron Rose, an artist and Blair's new step-brother. She accepts his offer to travel to Argentina with him but they break up soon into the flight. On the New Years, Serena decided that she wants Dan and wants to make sure that he feels the same. They both feel the same way for each other but soon after, discovers about Scott being their half-brother by their parents, then Dan had a affair with Serena's old teacher, Ms. Carr. Their final issues lead them to breaking up for the last time.In the final episode of the season, The Goodbye Gossip Girl, Gossip Girl sends a blast during their graduation commencement ceremony. Serena, angry that Gossip Girl has ruined the day, vows to find out who she is. They don't, however, uncover her and accept that they will never know her identity. At the end of the episode, Carter Baizen, a friend of Serena, tells her she has found the whereabouts of her father. Serena decides to go with Carter to meet him. Serena has been given a place at Brown, her mother's alma mater.

Season 3
At the beginning of the season during the summer, Serena had been searching for her father and is in a relationship with Carter Baizen. She decides to not go to Brown for another year, and gets a job at a publicist. Blair and Serena get into a feud, which is patched up by Nate and Chuck. Later, Serena gets a job in the office of Trip Van der Bilt, who is Nate's cousin, and is running for office as mayor of New York. Trip and Serena later have a relationship, even though Trip is married to Maureen. He tells Serena that he doesn't love Maureen and will leave her. Serena follows him out of town. Maureen however finds them, and bribes Serena with a letter from Serena's father, that contains gossip about Lily. Maureen says that Serena can be Trip's mistress, saying that she "will be Jackie [Kennedy]" and Serena "Marilyn [Monroe]. Serena refuses and tells Maureen that Trip will stay with her. However, when she finds out that Trip wants to stay with Maureen for his political career, she asks Trip to drive her back to New York. They have a car accident, and Serena is taken to hospital. Nate shouts at Trip and stays with Serena in the hospital. Serena meets her father when her mother is diagnosed with cancer. However, it is revealed that she really wasn't and William van der Woodsen (William Baldwin) was using this as a scheme. Although Nate calls the police on William, Serena helps him escape. In the season finale, Serena and Dan share a "meaningless" kiss which leads her to break-up with Nate also she knew that she had feelings for Dan. She leaves for Paris with Blair, both dignifying themselves as beautiful, single, carefree women.

Season 4
In "Belles de Jour", Serena has a thing for waiters and anyone on a vespa in Paris. When Blair meets who she Paris thinks is a prince from Monaco, Serena goes on a double date with her which leads to an awkward identity confusion. Blair finds out about Serena's intentions to attend Columbia and they fight, but later make up. We discover that Chuck has been rescued by a mysterious woman. In "Goodbye, Columbia", Serena is having some problems with her classes. Every morning a mysterious man in her building takes her taxi for one of his many one night stands which is making her late. Despite many attempts to meet with her professor, something seems to always get in the way, which makes her professor quite angry with her. We see Juliet meet with a man in jail who "wants to leave Serena with nothing, like she did to (him)". A post appears on Gossip Girl that Serena has an STD which creates a stir among both Dan and Nate. When Dan accompanies Nate to the health centre, Vanessa gets jealous enough to steal Serena's phone at Juliet's request. Juliet sends a message on her phone and only later do we discover that the message was a request of trading sexual favours for grades to the teacher that is already not pleased with Serena. Serena almost gets expelled when Vanessa confesses to stealing the phone and accidentally takes the blame for the message. Juliet bonds with Serena over the incident. In 'Panic Roommate' Serena and Ben almost leave each other for good when Dan, Eric and Damien set Ben up for a fall. However Dan is sorry for what he did and makes sure Ben doesn't go back to prison, instead he and Serena kiss again at last. The last scene of Serena in the episode is of her and Ben together again at last after Dan retreats from the loft where Ben is staying. In the upcoming epsode 'Petty Pink' a not so thrilled Serena confronts Dan and Blair about their relationship, which could put their friendships at risk.

Season 5
Comming Soon...

Relationships
Lillian Bass Humphrey (mother)

William van der Woodsen (father)

Eric van der Woodsen (younger brother)

Celia Rhodes (maternal grandmother)

Charlie Rhodes (cousin)

Jenny Humphrey (step sister)

Dan Humphrey (step brother & love of her life)

Nate Archibald (ex-boyfriend)

Blair Waldorf (best friend)