Gossip Girl creator reveals secrets

Somewhere in New York there's a woman in her late 30s who, it seems, is the model for the outrageously privileged young Manhattan teens who people Gossip Girl, a shameless tale of drugs, drink, sex and designer
clothes that comes to Britain this week after its controversial debut season in America. Cecily von Ziegesar, who wrote the novels on which the series is based, told the Sunday Telegraph how she used her schoolfriends at a posh Upper East Side girl's school, Nightingale-Bamford, for inspiration - and in particular a mystery girl she calls 'A'.

"School was our home-away-from-home," says von Ziegesar, 37, "especially when our parents were busy travelling, having affairs or getting divorced, and our siblings were in treatment centres for eating disorders, drug use or depression. Our teachers were affectionate but tough, and gave endless hours of homework. After all, despite our trust funds, we were expected to attend the best colleges, to make something of ourselves."

'A' was the richest of the rich, the most privileged of them all. She had a driver, a stableful of horses to ride at weekends, and a mother who would fly her to Paris on Concorde to get fitted by Yves Saint Laurent himself for the YSL winter collection. And she always took an enema after a rich meal, just like her bone-thin mother taught her.

There was only one catch: 'A' wasn't pretty. "She was a mess. She wore braces and Coke-bottle glasses. She was dyslexic, had tutors in all subjects and took her exams in a private room at school without a time limit."

At which point, viewers will discover that the TV series departs from reality: there is no such thing as an ugly teenager of either gender in Gossip Girl. Oh, and Von Ziegesar admits that there's a lot more drugs, drinks and sex among the girls of the fictionalised Constance Billard School than she remembers at the real-life Nightingale-Bamford. Now there's a surprise.