Leighton Meester Lets the ‘Gossip’ Roll Off Her

[Brian Damage]

Leighton Meester may play everybody’s favorite mean girl on the CW’s hit Gossip Girl, but in real life the 21-year-old says she’s learning to be less sensitive to hurtful gossip. “I’ve learned to let things roll off my back. If people say negative things, I could care less,” she says in the spring issue of Teen magazine. “But I let it give me a boost of confidence if they’re saying nice things.”

In her first time out as a magazine cover girl, Meester talks about her hit show — and speculates about the identity of the enigmatic Gossip Girl blogger. “I have my suspicions,” she says. “If I had to guess, I was thinking it could be Chuck. He seems just evil enough to say those things.”

As for her role on the series, queen bee Blair Waldorf, Meester says she’s increasingly coming to relate to her character. “I feel like I’m becoming more like her and she’s becoming more like me. She’s young and vulnerable, but also smart and feisty.”