Blake Lively says girls aren't only catty on her hit CW show Gossip Girl - they're mean in real life, too.

In February's Vogue, she recalls entering a private school in Los Angeles in second grade.

"It was the only school where people were just downright mean to me," she says. "They would make fun of my clothes."
Lively says her love of offbeat fashion came from her mother, Georgia, who'd often take her to boutiques and vintage stores and tailor adult clothes to fit her.
"She just did that because she was so creative and because she didn't want me to be dressed in big T-shirts cinched with a plastic clip like all the rest of the kids," says the actress.

She now thanks the Gossip Girl wardrobe crew for honing her fashion sense.
"The more they work with me and see my style, and the more I learn about fashion, the more input I have," she says. "It's more collaborative now than it was in the beginning because then I had no idea what I was doing."



Of Gossip Girl, she says, "the fashion is just unbelievable. You can watch our show on mute and be entertained."

Lively says she loves her character Serena's NYC look.
"Just being here, walking around, you pick it up really quickly," she says. "In New York, you put on skinny jeans and riding boots and a leather coat and handbag, and you take on that posture and character. It becomes very natural."