Serena Van Der Woodsen is one of the main characters in the popular television series Gossip Girl. A seemingly 'nice' character in a world of greed, back-stabbing and scandal, she is first introduced in the pilot episode by the mysterious Gossip Girl. Blonde, wide-eyed and pretty, the initial impression the viewer can gain of her is that she is the typecast bimbo character-naive and helpless but the character you always secretly admire. However, within a few minutes, this impression of her is slightly tarnished-we learn from Gossip Girl that she is in fact back from a stint in boarding school after a mysterious 'incident'. Throughout the first episode, it is heavily hinted that Serena had a less-than-perfect -past in that she is far from the goody-good the viewer first meets. Later in the first series, it is revealed that Serena escaped from Manhatten when she slept with her best friend, Blair's, boyfriend, Nate. As the series keeps going on, Serena seems to have left her 'bad girl' past behind her and has instead become a bland, simpering barbie girl who is well-liked for her carefree attitude.Unlike the other characters in the series, she is very heavily typecast, from the start of the series anyway, as the very-much stereotypical female character whom we are all supposed to look-up to for her lack of 'bitchiness', her gorgeousness and supermodel proportions. Asides from setting an unrealistic standard of beauty, her character does nothing to show her as a strong female role-instead, she is portryed as the female tool so common in the media-useful only as a love interest for the hero. Perhaps her only redeeming feature is her will to do the right thing when everyone around her is so, so bad.