It’s been 10 years since Gossip Girl premiered and the one constant that fans seem to agree on is that Vanessa (Jessica Szhor) sucks. I think people actually have parties about how much they don’t like her and many say they weren’t sad to see her go when she departed after season 4. But guess what, Upper East Siders, I’m not a sheep and I’m here to tell you that Vanessa wasn’t nearly as bad as people made her out to be, especially when Jenny Humphrey was hogging up space and air.
Let’s begin with a little Vanessa history so you can fully appreciate her character and personality. Vanessa is regarded by everyone (and, notably, herself) as a moral person, and therefore holds morality in very high regard. Though she has been known to scheme on occasion, and sometimes even to the detriment of those she loves most, she generally abstains from this behavior and has a great disdain for others (particularly Blair) who partake in it. It should also be noted that generally, Vanessa seems to feel great guilt and regret in her involvement in schemes – especially if they’ve hurt others. She also does not bother to try change herself just for others and says what she truly thinks. However, as the series progressed, she also became increasingly vindictive and scheming because of her bitterness towards wealthy people, something that wouldn’t have happened had they been a little nicer to her.
She is a filmmaker, and is passionate about this endeavor, but also places great importance on academic achievement (much to the displeasure of her non-conformist parents). Despite the pressure to assimilate to her family’s dislike for a formalized college education, Vanessa secretly yearned to attend, and at Nate’s encouragement, took the SATs and later enrolled as a student at NYU.
Vanessa is also a political and social activist, and believes in helping people through whatever means possible. This has often shown to be a trait admired by other characters, especially those less similarly inclined (notably Chuck). She has a disdain for wealth and conformity, and as such, most of the characters that she regularly interacts with (and, for a brief time following the marriage of his father to the wealthy Lily van der Woodsen, Dan). She especially dislikes Blair, but there are moments when the two formed a truce.
Now that you know the girl, let’s get down to it. I can understand Vanessa not being your favorite character. She’s not glamorous like Blair and Serena and she doesn’t have numerous sexcapades like Nate or Serena and she’s not endlessly tortured by an absent parent like Chuck and Serena but she is not the most awful thing in the history of the universe, which is often how a lot of fans treat her. Vanessa is the only character that has never had oodles of money at her disposable, she’s had to work for what she has, and she worked damn hard for it. She’s creative and wants to help people and despite her less glamorous upbringing, she does her best not to resent her richer friends (she fails at this sometimes, but wouldn’t anyone?). She has issues with her hippie parents, but they’re more relatable than “My dad told me my mother died but then she came back and took my hotel and was sleeping with my uncle and then she told me she really wasn’t my mother and then said she was and then said she wasn’t again, even though she was and then she left.” Seriously, anyone that thinks that THAT storyline was better than Vanessa and Dan grading each other’s papers is crazy. The scenes with her mother were great, especially when she was waiting for her mom to meet her in the coffee shop and she never showed, probably one of the more heartbreaking moments of the series.
Vanessa was the only person that Nate’s ever dated that wanted him to do more with his life than what his family wanted AND she was the only one that got him to reconnect with them after they had disowned his father. She knew it was important for him to be his own man and not his namesake, but also to not hate that name, either. She’s the only girlfriend Dan’s ever had that actually liked the same nerdy stuff he did. On paper they probably make the most sense as a couple and granted there are times she overstepped with him (most notably his book), but sometimes a good friend needs to help you get out of your own way in order for you to be your best self. Hell, her overstepping got him published in “The New Yorker” during season one. That’s a true friend right there and she did the ultimate best friend service by participating in a threesome. That’s friendship goals right there. She’s the only character on the show with actual ambitions outside of secret societies, true love and having sex with Serena (although that would be hot). She went to Haiti over the summer but no one cares about that, only what and who Serena did in Paris.
I just don’t understand why everyone hates her so much. Okay, sure, she sometimes stooped to the lows of her counterparts but again I say this happened because some of them could be very rotten to her. Needless to say, Vanessa often reacted to the actions of others and I do believe she mostly had her heart in the right place. No one is perfect and when you’re breathing the same air as Serena and Jenny, you can’t be nearly as bad as them.
Give Vanessa another shot. It’s been 10 years people! She deserves your love and praise. Let the Vanessa hate go and pour all that energy into hating Jenny more. It will make you feel so much better.
Editor’s Note: You should definitely fuel the hate towards Jenny Humphrey over Vanessa and keep checking reeltalkinc.com today and tomorrow, September 19th, for more Gossip Girl as we continue our tribute to our favorite Upper East Siders.
