Gossip Girl TV Show: How Gossip Girl Influences Teens

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Aimee is from West Chester, PA, and she is 15 years old. She has a passion for figure skating, ballet and playing the piano. She loves challenges and aspires to be a lawyer when she is older.

The hit television series Gossip Girl, based on Cecily-von-Ziegesar’s hit series of the same name, is all about the privileged and scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite. The teens in this series party, hook up and deal with extra dramatic dramas that are out of this world. Most of the characters have very wealthy parents and are very popular among their peers.

Many teens watch this show every week on the CW at 9pm and it is a favorite among teen girls. The show has amazing and creative costuming and some great acting in it, but should teens be watching this show?

Gossip Girl is rated TV-14, which means that it is recommended to people 14 and older. But is this rating really appropriate? There are many aspects of the series that might make parents slightly apprehensive about their teens watching this show.

Sex: There are plenty of teenage sex scenes in this series. Some of these scenes involve drugs, cheating, and teens losing their virginity. Because this series is about the lives of rich and privileged teens who are watching this could view it as being the cool thing to do. This might have some influence on teens that would make them think that it is cool to be in sexually active relationships.
Language: The vocabulary in Gossip Girls isn’t entirely all that bad. There are a few curse words dropped here and there, but nothing that teens wouldn’t see if watching a PG-13 rated movie. I don’t think that the language is anything teens would be immensely influenced by.
Materialism: With the teens in Gossip Girl having so much money, they are always shopping and spending money. The teens own loads of designer clothing and live in very fancy apartments.
Drinking, Drugs, and Smoking: This series regularly talks about all of these things. With the characters being as wealthy as they are, they constantly have access to alcohol and drugs. I don’t think this sends the best message to viewing teens because the teens on the show are considered cool by their peers, so that could make teens think that it is cool to do these things.
Role Models: Although it seems that most of the characters in the series don’t have very good morals, some of them actually portray positive messages to teens. Some of the characters have goals of becoming better people and some start off good and turn into bad characters.

Parents can use Gossip Girl to show the trouble teens can get in when they become involved in the things that the characters in the series do. They can talk to their kids about how drugs, smoking, drinking, sex, and violence can change people’s lives and affect everyone around them. I think the show is a pretty good example of showing these things, so that is one thing that teens can learn when watching Gossip Girl. Although the series does portray some bad messages, teens that are intelligent will be un-swayed by these massages and take it for just being an entertaining show.