Leighton Meester
She lived with her mother in dodgy rentals in the West Village, then in Inwood, at the northernmost tip of Manhattan. Meester booked commercials for Bloomingdale’s, Stern’s, the Limited Too. She flourished under pressure.
“I worked a lot, even though I was just a kid. It seemed normal to me,” she shrugs.
Building on her success, Meester left New York at 14 for Los Angeles for pilot season. She and her mother lived in an apartment at the corner of Hollywood and La Brea, steps from the Walk of Fame, surviving on modest checks from Meester’s grandfather and fees from Meester’s modeling gigs. When she could, she took acting classes. She preferred the ones with adults.
*Marie Claire Interview 2012*