Cecily von Ziegesar is a successful American author, best known for her young adult novel series. She was born in New York City and grew up with a dream of becoming a ballerina, having started ballet lessons at the age of three. At eight, she auditioned for the Ballet School of America but was rejected, which led her to pursue other interests. Von Ziegesar attended the Nightingale-Bamford School, a prestigious private school in Manhattan, which would later become the inspiration for her famous Gossip Girl series.
After graduating from Nightingale, Cecily attended Colby College and then spent a year in Budapest working for a local radio station. She returned to the United States to study creative writing at the University of Arizona but dropped out shortly after. It was during her time at Alloy Entertainment, a book-packaging firm, that she became inspired to create the Gossip Girl series. The series quickly climbed to the top of The New York Times best-sellers list in 2002, and a spin-off series, The It Girl, followed suit in 2005.
Von Ziegesar's writing is heavily influenced by her own experiences growing up in New York City and attending a fancy prep school. Her characters and their conversations and antics are authentic, making her novels relatable and enjoyable for her young adult audience. The Constance Billard School for Girls in Gossip Girl is based on an exaggerated version of von Ziegesar's alma mater, Nightingale, and she also drew inspiration from the lives of her wealthy friends and her own life as a perpetual gossip. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York with her family.