On HBO Max’s new iteration of Gossip Girl, Tavi Gevinson plays the teacher Kate Miller, who is tired of being bullied by the Upper East Siders. But in reality, Tavi was once one of those teenagers. In fact, at one point she was the it girl of fashion.
At the age of only 11, Tavi’s rise to fame began when she started the now-defunct blog Style Rookie. As her own editor-in-chief, she frequently published her OOTD and other reflections on trends, some of which caught the attention of fashion makers.
It was only a matter of time before she sat in the front row of some of the biggest runway shows, including that of Chanel Couture. According to a 2010 New York article, the teenager was blinded Karl Lagerfeld with their charm and intellect. After their interview, he praised a young Tavi and told a Canadian television crew, “She has a fresh eye … She’s not ruined by countless bad collections.”