She went from playing a teen on the Upper East Side to a Hollywood leading lady: Blake Lively's life and career in pictures

If you were a teen growing up in the 2010s, Gossip Girl was one of the 'It' shows of TV.

The series catapulted Blake Lively, who played the fashionable Serena van der Woodsen, to a whole new level of fame.

After starring on the show for six seasons, Lively went from teen TV star to a Hollywood leading actress, starring in everything from A Simple Favor to her latest drama, It Ends With Us.

And with a famous family connection, movie-making was in her blood.

Over the years Lively's personal life has been just as headline-worthy as her career, from the star's marriage to fellow actor Ryan Reynolds, her friendships with A-listers like Taylor Swift, and more recently, her legal battle with former co-star and director Justin Baldoni.

Let's take a look back at the Lively's life and career over the decades.

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Even before she was a famous actress, this little girl already had a glimpse of what life in Hollywood looked like.

Blake Lively, born in 1987, grew up as one of five kids to acting coach Elaine Lively and actor Ernie Lively.

One of her sisters Robyn you might even know from The Karate Kid movie franchise and Teen Witch.

"I have a big, close, loving family, and they're all from the South, but because so many of them are actors, everyone was very normal about it. It was just like any job to them," she said in 2010 for a profile with Interview Magazine

"They always came home and talked about it around the dinner table the way any family talks about work, but it wasn't anything special."

While she was growing up, her dad was starring in the likes of The Man in the Moon and The Legend of Cryin' Ryan. And it seems the acting gene doesn't fall far from the tree.

When she was around 11, Lively followed in the footsteps of her dad and siblings and got into acting.

Her first-ever role was as Trixie in the 1998 musical film Sandman, directed by none other than her dad Ernie (pictured here).

But her breakthrough role would come years down the track...

In 2005, Lively started to be recognised as a star on her own when she was cast alongside American Ferrera, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn in the coming of age film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

The movie follows four friends who pass around the same pair of denim jeans as they spend their first summer apart. 

Then aged about 18, Lively played Bridget in the film that would go on to be a classic for teen girls everywhere.

The film helped launch Lively's name, and clearly did well since it got a sequel three years later.

All four leading ladies returned for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in 2008.

But in between filming the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants duology, Lively landed arguably her most memorable role to date.

Lively landed a lead role on the teen drama series Gossip Girl in 2007, starring alongside Leighton Meester, Chace Crawford, Penn Badgley and Ed Westwick, who would all become big names after six seasons of the show.

Speaking to Vanity Fair 10 years after the show premiered, Lively recalled how after she was cast as Serena van der Woodsen she was scared of the attention that could come with the role.

"I'm actually a very shy person and the idea of losing my anonymity was one that was scary to me," she said.

"I remember saying when I read this script, 'Whoever does this will not be able to walk out of their house ever again and be the same as before they started this.' You could tell it was a cultural phenomenon. That was both exciting and thrilling, but also very scary."

While her character Serena was falling in love with Dan on-screen, Lively was falling for his real-life counterpart, Penn Badgley. They started dating officially around 2007.

It wasn't the first time a rising star had fallen for their on-screen love interest but Lively faced some challenges as a result.

"I was wearing the same clothes and doing fashion shoots, and dating the same person that my character was dating—or sometimes that person [Dan] was my brother, you never know with Serena—and because of that, what people were projecting onto me was that I was Serena," she recalled.

Speaking of dating her co-star, Lively added: "If [Badgley and I] were photographed walking down the street, they didn't know if it was a paparazzi shot or if it was a shot from the show."

Badgley and Lively reportedly dated for three years after meeting on the teen drama series.

The couple called it quits in 2010, but both stayed on the show until it wrapped in 2012. While the didn't end up together in real life, their characters got a happily ever after on Gossip Girl.

After wrapping the series, Lively pursued more roles in TV and made the move into films.

When people think of Lively's most memorable role, Green Lantern probably doesn't come to mind since it wasn't really a commercial hit. But the film still changed Lively's life forever – because of it, she met her future husband.

Lively met actor Ryan Reynolds on the set of the superhero flick in 2010, where she played his love interest.

She was still dating Badgley at the time and Reynolds was married to actress Scarlett Johansson, but both couples split within months of each other and rumours began to swirl that Lively and Reynolds on-screen chemistry might have bled into their real lives too.

As the pair did press for their movie, rumours began to swirl that Lively and Reynolds were more than just co-stars but the pair insisted there was nothing romantic between them at the time.

During a 2021 podcast appearance, Reynolds revealed the pair reconnected when they went on a double date – but with different people as their dates.

"We were friends and buddies, and then about a year and a half later, we actually went on a double date but we were dating separate people," he said.

The couple kept the start of their relationship very private and low-key, not wanting to ignite any more rumours about how they'd fallen in love or their past relationships.

Then in September 2012, they secretly tied the knot at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

It wasn't until nearly two years later that they made their red carpet debut as a couple at the 2014 Met Gala, Reynolds dressed in a classic suit and Lively looking like Old Hollywood royalty in a glittering pink gown.

A few months later, the couple celebrated another milestone: they were expecting their first child together!

The stars welcomed their first child, daughter James, in December 2014, followed by their second child, another daughter named Inez, in September 2016.

Here they are with their two girls at Reynolds' Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2016. 

During his speech at the ceremony, Reynolds told the crowd that Lively was the "best thing that has ever happened" to him and said: "You've made me the father of my dreams when I thought I only had fun uncle potential."

In her professional life, Lively was staying booked and busy after wrapping up her six years on Gossip Girl.

In 2015, she played the titular character in The Age of Adaline, which co-starred the legendary Harrison Ford.

A year later, she was again cast as the leading lady in a role very different to the New York fashionista she played on Gossip Girl.

Lively starred in the harrowing horror film, The Shallows, which is about a woman trying to survive in the ocean after a great white shark attacks her.

The actress filmed the action movie months after welcoming her first child James.

In an interview with Extra TV, Lively said the role was "incredibly physically demanding" and "like being an athlete more than an actor".

Speaking of her physical transformation for the film she said: "It was eight months after I had a baby. It was such an undertaking, 'cause your body changes so much, not just for vanity's sake, but I had to be strong to keep up with it."

Then in 2018, Lively proved she was an acting chameleon with a new role as a mysterious mum who goes missing in A Simple Favor.

Lively starred as Emily in the thriller alongside Pitch Perfect actress Anna Kendrick. She also told ABC News that her real-life parenting instincts kicked in while filming the movie with child actors.

"When we were shooting with them I would do a very neutered version and then I'd say, 'Paul can you remove the kids so we can just improv now?' And then he would take the kids away and they would go and hand them lollipops,"

Seven years after the first movie came out, it's been confirmed that a sequel starring Kendrick and Lively, called Another Simple Favor, will premiere in March 2025 at South by Southwest festival.

In 2019, Lively had some big personal news to share with the world: she was expecting her third child with Reynolds!

The couple confirmed the news in the most Hollywood way possible by debuting Lively's baby bump on the red carpet at the Pokémon Detective Pikachu premiere on May 2. 

The pair welcomed their third daughter, Betty, a few months later in October.

We were used to seeing Lively on the screen, but in 2021 she took on a role fans had never seen her do before.

Lively made her directorial debut for her A-list pal Taylor Swift's music video, I Bet You Think About Me.

Lively and Reynolds have been close friends with Swift since around 2015 and Swift gushed about finally getting the chance to work with one half of the Hollywood power couple.

"I finally got to work with the brilliant, brave, & wickedly funny [Blake Lively] on her directorial debut," Swift captioned an Instagram teaser for her music video.

Lively has been a longtime member of Swift's inner circle.

Not only is the singer godmother to Lively and Reynolds' kids, she was also the one to announce their third daughter's name to the world with her 2020 song Betty.

Lively went to several of Swift's Eras Tour shows and even attended the Super Bowl with her in February 2024 to cheer on Travis Kelce and the Chiefs.

See all the best photos from the day here.

Across her career, Blake Lively has attended many red carpets (it comes with the job of being a Hollywood star) but there's one red carpet where Lively really shines and is hailed with fanfare each time: the Met Gala.

Lively has been hailed the unofficial queen of the Met Gala by fans and media over the years thanks to her extravagant looks that always seem to be perfectly on-theme for the year's dress code.

Lively first attended fashion's biggest night in 2010 during her Gossip Girl days and has been many times since, including this appearance in 2018 where she wore Versace for the Sunday Best dress code, which accompanied that year's costume institute theme, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.

Lively had walked the Met Gala as an attendee many times, but in 2022 she took on a new role for the event.

The actress was one of the co-chairs for the 2022 Met Gala, which had the theme In America: An Anthology of Fashion. Her fellow co-chairs were her husband Ryan Reynolds, Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda, and actress Regina King.

For the red carpet dress code Gilded Glamour, Lively was dressed in a show-stopping Atelier Versace piece.

The actress arrived in a bronze dress with a bow, which was then untied to reveal a blue skirt and matching gloves beneath. The fashion performance was meant to represent the Statue of Liberty oxidation process. 

See more memorable Met Gala looks here.