Cecily von Ziegesar is the author of the Gossip Girl books, a series about a group of rich Manhattan teenagers and their adventures with sex, drugs, and alcohol. The books have been criticized as nothing more than the written equivalent of a soap opera, but fans believe von Ziegesar speaks honestly about contemporary teen life. As a critic for Publishers Weekly described the series, "though anyone hoping for character depth or emotional truth should look elsewhere, readers who have always wished Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz would write about teenagers are in for a superficial, nasty, guilty pleasure."

Von Ziegesar herself comes from a wealthy background and swears the events found in her novels are based on real life. She told Rachel Cooke in the Observer: "I was just describing a world that I knew. At high school, one of my best friends would fly Concorde to Paris...