My original purpose of starting this blog was to share stories and opinions about things that I cared about and to promote the viewpoint of someone who was tired of the over-sexualized themes that seemed to be the dominating trend in popular culture today. As such, I'm always glad to find a woman who can be a role model of this and who is making her own success story without resorting to flashing her hoo-hoo to get press. One such star-in-the-making is Gossip Girl's Nan Zhang. Though she only plays a minor character in the show, her life can be held as an example of how much one can accomplish, without compromising to what others expect.
Nan was born Nov. 1, 1986 in Anhui, China, but she moved to New Orleans with her parents when she was a small child. As an only child of two docters, Nan undoubtedly felt the pressure to excel in life and she graduated from high school top of her class to enter John Hopkins' University to study Neuroscience. At the same time, she was also pursuing a modeling career, winning Chanel/Seventeen Magazine's New Model of the Year contest when she was 16. However Nan dropped out of university to pursue something totally different - acting. After being discovered in a New York City nail salon, in of all places, the Upper East Side, Nan got her first break in The Shanghai Hotel. Then in March 2007, she got the part of Kati Farkas in Gossip Girl.
Not only is this girl stupidly gorgeous, she also is super smart and is an accomplished pianist and dancer and continues to be involved in her spare time with neuroscience research. Plus, being 2 years younger than me, she thoroughly manages to make me feel like a waste of a human being. You just know a girl like this works hard. The straw that breaks the camel's back though is that Nan is 5"8. FIVE FEET AND 8 INCHES. Like wtf?! She's Chinese!!! I know I'm supposed to be singing her praises, but actually I've suddenly changed my mind as I'm writing this - I now hate Nan Zhang. Damn her for being hot, smart, coordinated, and bucking her Asian genes to become annoyingly tall. Excuse me while I now go comfort myself with a bucket of Haagen Daas.