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A review by emilydk
Because I'm Worth It by Cecily Von Ziegesar
3.0
- Blair agrees to help be a peer group leader for a group of freshman in order to make her application stronger for Yale. She ends up with Jenny in her group, who technically stole Nate from her, but there are no hard feelings because Nate just dumped Jenny on NYE's and Blair feels like that's punishment enough. Peer group isn't super successful, because Serena's also a leader and instead of talking about things like body image or issues with school that the freshies are worried about, Serena spends the whole time gushing about herself per usual.
- Serena is in a relationship with Aaron, Blair's stepbrother, after hooking up with him at New Year's. Serena is crazy in love, as she is with each of her beau's. Aaron ends up getting into Harvard early admission so they have a lot to celebrate. But then Serena gets asked to be in the fashion show at Fashion Week for Les Best and ends up getting wrapped up in herself on the night she's supposed to be celebrating with Aaron. She embarrasses him by writing "I LOVE AARON" on her t-shirt for her look during the show, and he decides to slink out before the after-party. Serena doesn't really notice and instead likes being adored by all her fans and starts an impromptu snowball fight with all the models & designers. Aaron ends up ending things with her in a very vague way while Serena is in the middle of shooting a perfume commercial a few days later. So the end of another relationship for Serena - big surprise.
- Jenny meets Elise, a fellow freshman, in peer group and they're suddenly attached at the hip. Jenny is smitten with a cute guy she sees at Bendels, but as the book progresses it becomes clear that Elise is smitten with Jenny (Elise has Jenny paint her naked a la Titanic). Mystery boy agrees to meet up with Jenny on a bus on Valentine's Day, which thankfully helps Elise get the picture that Jenny and her are only friends (though Jenny did make out with her for a bit, so it's not like Elise was creating things up out of no where).
- Blair chops off all her hair to look like Audrey Hepburn while she stresses about doing a re-do interview for Yale with an alumni friend of her dad's, Owen Wells. Once she meets Owen, she decides to have an affair with him because she needs to feel more sophisticated and he reminds her of Cary Grant. Thankfully, Blair doesn't lose her virginity to him because it turns out he's married and has a kid - Elise, Jenny's friend and one of the girl's in Blair's peer group! Blair washes that man right out of her hair by chopping her hair of even more like Mia Farrow.
- Nate gets caught buying pot in Central Park and has to go to rehab after school. There he meets Georgina Sparks, a wealthy drugged up heiress. When he gets stuck in a snow storm with her, he realizes the extent of Georgie's drug abuse and calls the the rehab clinic for help fearing she's OD'ed, which probably saves her life. Instead of being upset, this cements their love and *snap* Nate has a new romance (despite Blair's short strange attempt to woo Nate back by dropping into his rehab group therapy class).
- Finally, the agony of Vanessa and Dan. Dan finally agrees to give up his precious virginity to Vanessa, even though he called her a whore in the last book for daring to think about it. Then his poem calling Vanessa a whore gets published (thanks to Vanessa submitting it to the New Yorker) and he uses his new fame/ego to cheat on Vanessa with Mystery Craze, a hot mess of a writer he meets at Fashion Week. Vanessa meanwhile gets into NYU and has her film put in a fashion show, which Dan fails to notice because he's too involved in himself. Vanessa catches Dan mooning over Mystery Craze at a joint poetry reading that he hides from her, which upsets Vanessa but she still decides to film it because it's "beautiful" and Dan is creating "art" *major eye roll*
- Serena is in a relationship with Aaron, Blair's stepbrother, after hooking up with him at New Year's. Serena is crazy in love, as she is with each of her beau's. Aaron ends up getting into Harvard early admission so they have a lot to celebrate. But then Serena gets asked to be in the fashion show at Fashion Week for Les Best and ends up getting wrapped up in herself on the night she's supposed to be celebrating with Aaron. She embarrasses him by writing "I LOVE AARON" on her t-shirt for her look during the show, and he decides to slink out before the after-party. Serena doesn't really notice and instead likes being adored by all her fans and starts an impromptu snowball fight with all the models & designers. Aaron ends up ending things with her in a very vague way while Serena is in the middle of shooting a perfume commercial a few days later. So the end of another relationship for Serena - big surprise.
- Jenny meets Elise, a fellow freshman, in peer group and they're suddenly attached at the hip. Jenny is smitten with a cute guy she sees at Bendels, but as the book progresses it becomes clear that Elise is smitten with Jenny (Elise has Jenny paint her naked a la Titanic). Mystery boy agrees to meet up with Jenny on a bus on Valentine's Day, which thankfully helps Elise get the picture that Jenny and her are only friends (though Jenny did make out with her for a bit, so it's not like Elise was creating things up out of no where).
- Blair chops off all her hair to look like Audrey Hepburn while she stresses about doing a re-do interview for Yale with an alumni friend of her dad's, Owen Wells. Once she meets Owen, she decides to have an affair with him because she needs to feel more sophisticated and he reminds her of Cary Grant. Thankfully, Blair doesn't lose her virginity to him because it turns out he's married and has a kid - Elise, Jenny's friend and one of the girl's in Blair's peer group! Blair washes that man right out of her hair by chopping her hair of even more like Mia Farrow.
- Nate gets caught buying pot in Central Park and has to go to rehab after school. There he meets Georgina Sparks, a wealthy drugged up heiress. When he gets stuck in a snow storm with her, he realizes the extent of Georgie's drug abuse and calls the the rehab clinic for help fearing she's OD'ed, which probably saves her life. Instead of being upset, this cements their love and *snap* Nate has a new romance (despite Blair's short strange attempt to woo Nate back by dropping into his rehab group therapy class).
- Finally, the agony of Vanessa and Dan. Dan finally agrees to give up his precious virginity to Vanessa, even though he called her a whore in the last book for daring to think about it. Then his poem calling Vanessa a whore gets published (thanks to Vanessa submitting it to the New Yorker) and he uses his new fame/ego to cheat on Vanessa with Mystery Craze, a hot mess of a writer he meets at Fashion Week. Vanessa meanwhile gets into NYU and has her film put in a fashion show, which Dan fails to notice because he's too involved in himself. Vanessa catches Dan mooning over Mystery Craze at a joint poetry reading that he hides from her, which upsets Vanessa but she still decides to film it because it's "beautiful" and Dan is creating "art" *major eye roll*