2021 Was a Year of Firsts for 'Gossip Girl' Star Whitney Peak
Star of the rebooted Gossip Girl and one of Chanel’s youngest ambassadors, Whitney Peak sparkles—on screen and here, in Chanel’s high jewelry collection dedicated to the timeless No. 5, as she speaks to L'OFFICIEL about playing Zoya, moving to New York City, and attending her first fashion week.
Photography Jacques Burga
When Whitney Peak was 14, she was working at Wendy’s in Vancouver, Canada, not spending her after-school hours at “Dumbo Hall” or hanging out with Manhattan’s elite. Her real life was “just very different from what Zoya is going through,” the 18-year-old actress says of her Gossip Girl character. On the hit HBO Max show (rebooted from the mid-aughts CW sensation), Zoya Lott is a transplant into a world of privilege that envelops the teens of New York City’s elite private schools. However, as the young half-sister of Julien Calloway, Constance Billard’s queen bee, she is soon initiated into the partying, scheming, and social hierarchy of her classmates, thus becoming one of Gossip Girl’s key targets.
The Ugandan-born talent still keeps her perspective grounded in her early years, growing up in Canada after her family moved to Vancouver when she was nine years old. The designer clothes, members-only clubs, and status-obsessed lives of Gossip Girl weren’t a part of her reality then—and she likes to remind other young people that it is indeed fiction.
“In the show, they’re all like 16 or 17 and going out every night and dealing with problems that 16 and 17-year-olds should not be dealing with,” she says. “Your only problems at that age should be worrying about the math test you have to take on Friday, or what you’re going to wear to school today. It shouldn’t be like, ‘Let’s get a reservation at Butter for this many people!’ It sounds so bizarre to me, because that’s just so far from what I was doing at that age.”
And while her early teens were not too long ago, Peak remembers the awkward, uncomfortable phase of self discovery between middle and high school. “I was experiencing North American public school at that time,” she shares. “I got my first job at Wendy’s. I would wear black all the time and would straighten my hair because I didn’t know what to do with it. I think I got my period that year. Now thinking about it, it was a weird, weird time.”
Eighteen is a milestone year for most, but was especially so for Peak. The actress had already appeared in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Molly’s Game, but landing the role of Zoya marked an exponential rise in her star power.
When Gossip Girl began filming, Peak was still in high school—her set teacher was named, coincidentally, Nathaniel Archibald (the name of an original Gossip Girl character)—but she soon found herself stepping away from the traditional teen experience and more towards the lifestyle of the characters in real life, too. The actress moved to New York by herself during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic for Gossip Girl, her first time living on her own. Since the show’s release in July 2021, Peak has become one of the city’s It girls, going to fashion week, becoming a brand ambassador for Chanel, and attending her first Met Gala. “[The glamorous role is] more in line with my life now, because for some reason, luckily, I’m getting to live a great life, bigger than I ever thought possible,” Peak says.
Zoya is uninentionally cool, and that's what I like about her. She doesn't care too much about what she wears.
The actress had also expanded her horizons quite literally—in October, she made her very first trip to Paris to attend Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2022 runway at the Grand Palais Éphémère, which also happened to be her first fashion show. Peak was named a Chanel ambassador in March 2021, and while in Paris, she spent time at the fashion house learning about their high jewelry collection designed in honor of Chanel No. 5’s centennial birthday this year.
“I’ve never been around real diamonds of that caliber before,” Peak shares. “I was nervous, but it felt really empowering to wear them.”
With her personal style, the actress takes a laid-back approach. “I don’t like to put myself in a box, so I’m always wearing what feels comfortable,” she explains. “I don’t necessarily stick to street or sporty—I’m all over the charts when it comes to that; I just wear whatever I think is cool.”
Gossip Girl has a reputation for being fashion-forward, and Peak admires her character’s nonchalance when it comes to dressing. “Zoya is unintentionally cool, and that’s what I like about her. She doesn’t care too much about what she wears, which for some reason makes it come together even better.”
As the youngest main character, there’s plenty of room for Zoya—and Peak—to grow on the show. Zoya in particular demonstrates Gen Z’s outspokenness about social causes they care about, bringing in larger themes to the show. “She’s a lot more confident with sharing her opinions. I’m more of a factchecker before I put my opinion out there,” Peak says. “But we definitely share the same passion for using your voice, especially to represent those who can’t use their own.”
While the new Gossip Girl, like the original, draws in audiences with glamour and drama, Peak notes that it’s all a “smoke screen.”
“At the end of the day, as long as you stick to your values and roots, and have people close to you that can keep you in check, that’s all you really need,” Peak says. “If you grow up or move through life too quickly, you’re going to miss more than you think you would.”
L'OFFICIEL Winter 2021 is now on newsstands and is available to order online here.
HAIR Hos Hounkpatin
MAKEUP Vincent Oquendo
PHOTO ASSISTANT Flavie Nanchino
