GOSSIP GIRL [Book 1] Recap: “Sex Kitten” Blair Waldorf (Part 2)

Blair Waldorf

In book 1 of Gossip Girl, Cecily von Ziegesar wrote that Blair Waldorf “Turned seventeen on Bastille Day” and that Blair was “pretty hot” with “long, dark brown hair” who could easily go from a “proper preppy” schoolgirl to a “sex kitten”. Ziegesar wrote:

“Blair tucked her long, dark brown hair behind her ears and swigged her mother’s fine vintage scotch from the crystal tumbler in her hand. She was already on her second glass.”

That summer Blair: “Turned seventeen on Bastille Day [...]”

Blair could go from “proper preppy” to “her trashy, pointed, knee-high boots and that sexy metallic skirt her mother hated. Poof—rock star sex kitten. Meow.”

In terms of (underage) drinking (of expensive scotch), Blair and her Upper East Side friends could drink “whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted”, and they could have teen “sex or [do] drugs—as long as” they “kept up appearances”. Ziegesar wrote:

Luckily Blair and her friends came from the kind of families for whom drinking was as commonplace as blowing your nose [...] Blair and her friends could drink whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, as long as they maintained their grades and their looks and didn’t embarrass themselves or the family by puking in public, pissing their pants, or ranting in the streets. The same thing went for everything else, like sex or drugs—as long as you kept up appearances, you were all right.

At the dinner party in the Waldorf penthouse, which had a view of Fifth Avenue and Central Park, Cyrus Rose, Blair’s soon-to-be father-in-law, asked 17-year-old Nate, in reference to Blair, “You sleep with her yet?” Consequently, “Nate turned redder than the upholstery on the eighteenth-century French chaise next to him.”

That previous Easter, in a hotel room, Blair gifted Nate a “moss-green cashmere V-neck sweater”, which “looked so good on him that Blair wanted to scream and rip all her clothes off.” Really?

Subsequently, they kissed, Nate pulled Blair onto the hotel bed, and he undressed her.

They kissed for a long time [...] Nate twined his fingers in Blair’s hair and pulled her down on the hotel bed.

Blair put her arms above her head and let Nate begin to undress her [...]

And two nights prior to the dinner party, in Blair's bedroom, Nate: “[...] had lain down on her bed and murmured, “I want you, Blair.” However, on both occasions, they did not have sex, because Blair wanted to wait until she turned 17, but after “another sip of her scotch” at the dinner party, 16-year-old Blair “was definitely ready.” Ziegesar wrote:

Blair wasn’t trying to be a tease, she just wasn’t ready.

She had wanted to wait to have sex until her seventeenth birthday next month.

But now [at the dinner party] she was through with waiting.

And, just like that, Blair knew she was ready. She took another sip of her scotch. Oh, yes. She was definitely ready.

“Don’t forget to use protection,” Chuck [Bass] called, raising his glass at Blair and Nate as they turned down the long, red-carpeted hallway to Blair’s bedroom.

“I’m about to have sex with Nate [in my bedroom, during my mother’s dinner party],” Blair “thought giddily,” but to Blair’s dismay, Serena arrived at the dinner party, which meant that Blair had to wait again.

Determined to have sex, Blair emailed Nate, via her prep school email address, to inform him that she really wanted him to spend the night in her bedroom.

TO: narchibald@stjudes.edu

FROM: blairw@constancebillard.edu

 

Dear Nate.

I miss you. Monday night was supposed to be really special. Before we got interrupted [...] I just wanted to tell you that I’m ready to do it [...] My Mom and Cyrus are going away on Friday and I really want you to sleep over. I love you. Call me.

Love,

Blair.

Consequently, readers learned via a Gossip Girl (i.e., Ziegesar) post that Blair went to the Zitomer Pharmacy to purchase a pack of Lifestyles Extra-Long Super-Ribbed condoms. Gossip Girl surmised that Blair knew to get Extra-Long condoms, because Blair and Nate previously “had done everything but.” 

After leaving Zitomer’s, Blair went to J. Sisters for a painful Brazilian bikini wax, which Gossip Girl opined, “But believe me, it’s worth it.”

Blair planned to: “knock back a few drinks” (i.e., “Ketel One and tonic. Extra limes”) with Serena in the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel and then: “leave early, go home, fill her room with candles, take a bath, and wait for Nate to come. And then they’d have [“wild”] sex all night long [...]”

After Blair told her doorman to send Nate up, she got naked, and the “bad girl” spritzed “once between her legs.” Ziegesar wrote:

“Yes, send him up,” she told the doorman. She unbuttoned her jeans and flew back to her room, wriggling out of them. Then she pulled the rest of her clothes off and tossed them into the closet. Naked, she spritzed herself with her favorite perfume, even spritzing once between her legs.”

Oooh, bad girl.

Once Nate entered the penthouse, with no need for foreplay, Blair demanded, “Just hurry up and take your clothes off.” Blair was ready. Her bedroom was “a blaze of candles”, she had chilled red wine, and she was beautifully naked. Ziegesar wrote:

Blair’s room was a blaze of candles. A bottle of red wine was open on the floor, with two glasses beside it. Blair knelt down and poured each of them a glass like a little geisha. She felt more comfortable naked in the darkness of her room.

She was naked, and she was beautiful.

Upon seeing Nate’s (teen) erection, which Ziegesar wrote “looked like it was going to take over the world’, Blair murmured, gaping at Nate’s hard-on, “What about a condom or something?”

However, once again to Blair’s dismay, before they could have sex, Nate shared with Blair that he had sex with Serena. Consequently, Blair called Serena a “nasty, slutty bitch”, Nate “pathetic”, and Blair demanded, “Get the fuck out [...]” Ziegesar wrote:

“Blair threw the quilt off her shoulders and stood up. “I knew it!” she shouted. “Who hasn’t had sex with Serena? That nasty, slutty bitch!” 

“I’m sorry, Blair. But it wasn’t like, planned or anything,” Nate said. “It just happened. And it was only that one time, promise. I just didn’t want you to think this was my first time, when it wasn’t. I had to tell you.”

“Get the fuck out of here, Nate,” she said, angry tears sluicing her cheeks. “I can’t even look at you. You’re pathetic.”

-----

Gossip Girl had a very interesting take on what happened or did not happen between Blair and Nate. In THE VIRGIN ISSUE post, Gossip Girl wrote that Nate’s behavior was unbelievable and not worthy of admiration, because he was “thisclose to getting a nice slice of B pie”. And Gossip Girl wrote that, in reality, Blair would have preferred that Nate “kept his mouth shut” and not have been morally conscious about sharing that he previously had sex with Serena, whom just happened to have been Blair’s (previous) best friend. Gossip Girl assumed (correctly) that a boy would do “anything to bag a virgin.” Gossip Girl posted:

Can you believe N? He was thisclose to getting a nice slice of B pie, if you know what I mean. I guess we’re supposed to admire his self-control, his ability to keep the old hot dog in the bun. But I bet B really wouldn’t have minded too much if N had just kept his mouth shut and got on with it instead of getting all moral on her and telling her all about his time with S. I mean, who’s B going to lose it to now?”

“I was wrong about boys. I always thought they’d do anything to bag a virgin. I mean, I thought N would like the idea that B has never done it [...] So disappointing.

-----

Serena and Blair

Prior to their teen love triangle with Nate, Serena and Blair had been best friends. For example, in addition to enjoying “cocktails at the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel”, they would smoke cigarettes and drink Coke in Central Park during the school day. After school, they would “pee in the downstairs entrances to their classmates’ brownstones and then ring the doorbells and run away.” Ziegesar wrote:

She [i.e., Serena] and Blair would walk to school together, spend Double Photography in Sheep Meadow in Central Park, lying on their backs, taking pictures of pigeons and clouds, smoking and drinking Coke [...] They would have cocktails at the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel again [...] They’d pee in the downstairs entrances to their classmates’ brownstones and then ring the doorbells and run away. 

And readers learned via the Gossip Girl post S AND B: HOT IN THE HOT TUB! that Blair and Serena shared a girl-on-girl kiss in the hot tub in Chuck’s Tribeca Star Hotel suite; however, Gossip Girl didn’t know if the kiss was serious or silly. Gossip Girl posted:

[...] back when they were still tight, S and B shared a hot hot-tub moment together in C’s suite in the Tribeca Star. Was the kiss an expression of their true feelings for each other? Or were they just messing around like two silly drunk girls? 

The kiss happened “during a very drunken night at the end of 10th grade”; thus, Serena and Blair were ≈ 16-years-old. While they were “soaking in the hot tub”, “Blair had kissed Serena full on the lips.” However, due to being inebriated, Serena didn’t appear to remember the kiss, but “Blair never forgot it.”

Lastly, in addition, based on the photographs that Chuck kept in the suite, Blair was naked when she kissed nude Serena in the hot tub. Ziegesar wrote:

“On the coffee table in the living room was a pile of photographs.”

“Blair, Nate, Chuck, Isabel, Kati, everyone was in them, naked in the hot tub, dancing in their underwear, drinking champagne in bed. They were all party shots from last year—the date was in the corner of each one—and they were all taken in the suite.”

GOSSIP GIRL [Book 1] Recap: “Nasty, Slutty” Serena (Part 1)

Here’s the synopsis for Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl: A Novel, the #1 New York Times bestselling young adult novel series, that was posted on Hachette Book Group:

Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side, where my friends and I live, go to school, play, and sleep--sometimes with each other.

S [Serena van der Woodsen] is back from boarding school, and if we aren't careful, she's going to win over our teachers, wear that dress we couldn't fit into, steal our boyfriends' hearts, and basically ruin our lives in a major way. I'll be watching closely...

You know you love me,

gossip girl

Gossip Girl, the CW television series, is based on the novels. The series was called “Mind-blowingly inappropriate.” by the Parents Television Council, “Very bad for you." by the San Diego Union-Tribune, “A nasty piece of work.” by the New York Post, and New York Magazine opined that the series was the “Best. Show. Ever.” Along with seductive images of high school students, those reviews were proudly used by CW in advertisements for the television series. However, I would argue that the young adult novel series is inarguably more salacious. 

In preparation for my book From Gossip Girl to Pretty Little Liars: A Study of Self-Sexualized Schoolgirls in Young Adult Novels (working title), I’m recapping books 1-8, 13 and 14, which were written by Ziegesar and are based on Ziegesar's experiences at The Nightingale-Bamford School, an Upper East Side all-girls prep school. 

Serena van der Woodsen

In book 1, Ziegesar described Serena van der Woodsen, “[a]pproximately age seventeen”, as a “stunning”, “magnetic, [and] delicious” schoolgirl. And as a “tall, eerily beautiful blond girl” with “dark, almost navy blue eyes”, “perfect, pale skin”, a “long, slender waist”, and a “you can’t stop looking at me, can you?” smile supermodels spend years perfecting.” And Ziegesar wrote that, due to her alluring looks, Serena was “a full-on groper magnet”

In response to Serena (S) returning to Manhattan from doing 11th grade at Hanover Academy, a boarding school in New Hampshire, Gossip Girl warned Upper East Side prep school students on gossipgirl.net that if they weren’t careful, among other salacious activities, Serena would have sex in their parents’ beds: 

“If we aren’t careful, S is going to win over our teachers, wear that dress we couldn’t fit into, eat the last olive, have sex in our parents’ beds, spill Campari on our rugs, steal our brothers’ and our boyfriends’ hearts [...]”.

Interestingly, in the Vanity Fair piece “‘Gossip Girl Was Me’: Cecily von Ziegesar Talks Manhattan vs. Cobble Hill.” (2020), Ziegesar related that she was, in fact, Gossip Girl. Ziegesar said, “Gossip Girl wasn’t Dan in the books. She was the omniscient narrator. Gossip Girl was me.”

-----

Note: For the uninitiated, Blair Waldorf was Serena’s best friend. Later in the novel, Blair referred to Serena as a “nasty, slutty bitch”. Mrs. Waldorf is Blair’s mother, and Cyrus would eventually become Mrs. Waldorf’s second husband.

After Serena entered the Waldorfs’ penthouse for a dinner party, which was for the first time after returning from boarding school, Mrs. Waldorf introduced Serena to Cyrus Rose whom proceeded to not air kiss, but kiss Serena on her cheeks, he hugged her “a little too tightly”, and he patted her on the hip. 

Mrs. Waldorf smiled, obviously pleased, and wrapped her arm around Serena’s long, slender waist. “Darling, I’d like you to meet my special friend, Cyrus Rose,” she said. “Cyrus, this is Serena.”

“Stunning,” Cyrus Rose boomed. He kissed Serena on both cheeks, and hugged her a little too tightly. “She’s a good hugger, too,” Cyrus added, patting Serena on the hip.

However, due to being “a full-on groper magnet”, Serena didn’t flinch, because she was used to “horny European gropers”. Ziegesar wrote:

Serena giggled, but she didn’t flinch. She’d spent a lot of time in Europe in the past two years, and she was used to being hugged by harmless, horny European gropers who found her completely irresistible. She was a full-on groper magnet.

After Serena was harmlessly groped by Cyrus, Chuck Bass, a prep school student, handed Serena a “tumbler of whiskey”, said, “Welcome Back”, and he ducked down to kiss her cheek, but he missed intentionally “so that his lips landed on her mouth.” However, once again, Serena was unfazed.

“You haven’t changed,” Serena said, accepting the drink. She took a long sip. “So, did you miss me?”

Serena scanned the room with her “dark blue eyes” and discovered: “[...] Nate was standing by the doorway to the hall, and Blair was standing just behind him, her head bowed, fiddling with the buttons on her black cardigan.” (Serena had just unknowingly prevented Nate, a prep school student, and Blair, a Constance Billard School for Girls student, from having sex in Blair’s bedroom while guests arrived at the dinner party.)

After Nate asked Serena, “So, what have you been up to?” She giggled and replied, “If you only knew, Nate. I’ve been so, so bad!”

While observing Serena and Nate’s conversation, Chuck asked Blair, Kati, and Isabel if Serena looked like she had been “thoroughly fucked”, and wondered if Serena had been a Madam for boarding school sex workers. Chuck asked,

“And doesn’t she look fucked? I think she’s been thoroughly fucked. Maybe she had some sort of [teen] prostitution ring going on up there. The Merry Madam of Hanover Academy,” he added [...]

-----

Most of the Upper East Side prep school students got drunk for the first time in the 8th grade. At one particular party during the 8th grade, “[a]fter drinking six beers”, Nate got “a lot of action”, including from Serena. The party was at Jenny Humphrey’s apartment on 99th and the West End. Rufus Humphrey, Jenny’s father, “kept the beer flowing out of a keg in the bathtub.” Ziegesar wrote:

Buck Naked was Nate’s alter ego, invented at a party in eighth grade, when most of them had gotten drunk for the first time. After drinking six beers, Nate had taken his shirt off [...] and he started a drinking game. Everyone sat in a circle and Nate stood in the middle, holding a Latin textbook and shouting out verbs for them to conjugate. The first person to mess up had to drink and kiss Buck Naked. Of course they all messed up [...] so Buck got a lot of action that night [...]”

-----

After completing her 10th grade at Constance, approximately 16-year-old Serena spent a hot weekend in August with Nate. The night began with “martinis at the little bar”, and then the teens took a cab to Nate’s Park Avenue townhouse, where they had beer and cigarettes and got wet. Ziegesar wrote:

First they had martinis at the little bar upstairs by the Vanderbilt Avenue entrance to Grand Central. Then they got a cab straight up Park Avenue to Nate’s Eighty-second Street townhouse [...] Serena and Nate had the place to themselves.

They sat out in the garden, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Nate was wearing a long-sleeved polo shirt, and the weather was extremely hot, so he took it off. 

Serena was hot too, so she climbed into the fountain. She sat on the marble Venus de Milo statue’s knee, splashing herself with water until her dress was soaked through.

After martinis and beer, the uninhibited teens “tore each other’s [wet] clothes off”, and then, oddly in his parents’ bedroom, Nate parted Serena’s Red Sea.

Nate staggered over to the fountain and got in with her, and soon they were tearing the rest of each other’s clothes off. 

Nate was worried about the security cameras trained on his parents’ house at all times, front and back, so he led Serena inside and up to his parents’ bedroom.

They both had sex for the first time. It was awkward and painful and exciting and fun, and so sweet they forgot to be embarrassed. It was exactly the way you’d want your first time to be, and they had no regrets.

“You parted my Red Sea!” she howled, wrestling Nate against the pillows.”

After Serena and Nate had a “huge feast of Chinese food and bad white wine”, Nate: “[...] parted her Red Sea once again before the sky grew dark and the stars twinkled in the skylight.” How romantic. 

-----

Back at the dinner party, Serena said, “Shit. I missed you like crazy, Nate. I wish you could’ve seen the stuff I pulled. It was so bad.” Consequently, Nate imagined Serena: “[...] hosting orgies in her dorm room at Hanover Academy and having affairs with older men in hotel rooms in Paris.” Really? 

It’s not clear if Serena participated in orgies over the summer or had age-gap sex in Paris, but, in terms of age-gap affairs, Nicholas, a “French college guy who never wore underwear”, chased Serena’s train “in a tiny Fiat all the way from Paris to Milan.” 

-----

Over dinner at the dinner party, Serena shared with Cyrus, of all people, that while she was in the South of France over the summer, she went topless on the beach. Serena asked Cyrus, “How else could I get a decent [teen] tan?”

Later in the novel, Ziegesar elaborated that the beach was in Cannes and that Serena was “drinking Pernod and dancing naked”. Bottemless?

-----

Ziegesar did not make Serena a “Girls Girl”. Rather, while her boarding school doormates preferred to eat popcorn together in their pajamas while watching SNL, Serena preferred to: “[...] drink peach schnapps and smoke cigars with the boys in the chapel basement.”

However, back in Manhattan, when not indulging in spirits at the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star Hotel: “Serena and her friends would spend half the night getting dressed together, swilling gin-and-tonics, dancing around in their underwear, trying on crazy outfits.”

-----

After 17-year-old Serena arrived at the Whitehot Gallery in Chelsea in her “favorite black leather jeans”, she “grabbed a free gin martini before she was approached by one of the “absolutely gorgeous” 26-year-old Remi twin-brothers. Moments later, one of the twins was kissing Serena’s neck while the other, oddly, “hugged her knees”.

Suddenly Serena felt an arm around her waist [à la Cyrus]. 

“Hello, ma chèrie. Beautiful girl. What is your name?”

Serena didn’t resist when he pulled her into a photograph with him and his brother for the New York Times Sunday Styles section. [Despite their age differences] [o]ne brother stood behind Serena and kissed her neck while the other knelt in front of her and hugged her knees. 

The age-gap photograph was titled Serena and was given to the Public Arts League and New York Transit Authority for an “avant-garde public art program” to be displayed on public transportation all over New York City. 

After “[t]wo martinis and three rolls of Remi brothers’ film”, Serena took a cab to Constance and arrived late for the “interschool play rehearsal”.

-----

While having a “Ketel One and tonic. [with] Extra limes” and smoking a Gauloises in the Star Lounge in the Tribeca Star, Serena shared with Blair that she was expelled from boarding school for having a long-term absence due to remaining in France an extra three weeks, where she lived in an “amazing chateau outside of Cannes” and where she fell in love with “two boys, an older brother and a younger one”, however, Serena confessed that she was: “[...] even more in love with their father, but he was married.”

“Blair,” Serena said. “The only reason I got kicked out was because I didn’t show up at the beginning of school. I stayed in France. My parents didn’t even know. I was supposed to fly back at the end of August, but I stayed until the third week in September. I was living in this amazing chateau outside of Cannes, and it was, like, a constant party. I don’t think I slept a whole night the entire time I was there. It was like those parties in that house in The Great Gatsby.”

“There were these two boys, an older brother and a younger one, and I was totally in love with both of them. Actually,” she laughed, “I was even more in love with their father, but he was married.”

-----

Chuck listed the activities that Serena was (allegedly) involved in while she attended boarding school. For example, of Serena, Chuck said, “You got kicked out of boarding school because you are a perverted slut who made marks on the wall above the bed in your dorm room for every boy you did.” 

When Dan asked Serena if what Chuck alleged was true, Serena “fished in her bag for a cigarette” and asked slyly, “Well, what do you think?”

-----

Lastly, it may be worth noting Serena’s over-the-top residence. Ziegesar wrote:

Home was 994 Fifth Avenue, a ritzy, white-glove building next to the Stanhope Hotel and directly across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The van der Woodsens owned half of the top floor. Their apartment had fourteen rooms, including five bedrooms with private bathrooms, a maid’s apartment, a ballroom-sized living room, and two seriously cool lounges with wet bars and huge entertainment systems.

EUPHORIA's Season 1: Before Age-Play on OnlyFans it was Teen Camming on Skype

The current season of Euphoria (2026) has caused a lot of controversy, which mostly surrounds Cassie, Sydney Sweeney’s salacious character, who, in episode 3, donned a diaper and sucked on a pacifier as she spread her legs for her age-play OnlyFans. 

Cassie's (Sydney Sweeney) OnlyFans Age-Play

However, lest we forget, the premier season of Euphoria (2019) was just as salacious. For example, in the premier episode, Rue (Zendaya) opined that (teen) nudes are the “currency of love”, and she demanded that adult streamers stop shaming teen sexting. Rue reprimanded,

“I know your generation relied on flowers and [your] father’s permission, but it’s 2019, and unless you’re Amish, nudes are the currency of love. So, stop shaming us!”

Cassie's Currency of Love

Subsequently, in the episode, streamers were shown a series of teen sexts, each one a currency of love, from Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), a senior at East Highland High. 

Cassie's Carnival Climax

And by episode 4 of season one, after taking Molly, Cassie had an orgasm on a carnival carousel in front of a number of intrigued gawkers.

Kat Camming

Before OnlyFans, Skype was one of the apps used by online (teen) sex workers, which is the app that Kat (Barbie Ferreira), another student at East Highland High, used to earn money by entertaining 47-year-old Johnny. 

Maddy's Panama Beach Age-Gap Situaionship

There were a number of other age-gap situationships during the first season of the series as well. For example, take Maddy (Alexa Demie), another senior at East Highland High. Streamers learned in episode 5 that when Maddy was 14, she had sex with a 40-year-old whom she met on vacation in Panama City Beach. Rue (Zendaya) assured streamers that Maddy was not groomed but that Maddy “was the one in control.” Rue assured, 

When Maddy, "[...] was 14 on vacation in Panama City Beach, she met a guy, who was like 40 [...] which in retrospect seems kind of rapey and weird. But honestly, she was the one in control."

In addition, teen Maddy had a DJ, a married stockbroker, and the hot manager of the local roller rink. Rue narrated, 

"It's not like she ever cheated-cheated [on her high school boyfriend]. But every now and then she finds herself in like the gray area [...] except for that DJ who said he opened for Calvin Harris. And the stockbroker guy with the family who lived on Oak Street. And the hot dude who ran the roller rink."

Maddy Performs for Cam

And we learned from Rue that, in addition to being a teleiophile, Maddy prolifically watched men have sex. Of Maddy, Rue shared, “She also watched a lot of porn."

Interestingly, IndieWire's Ben Travers praised Euphoria's authenticity and wrote that the graphic teen series: "[...] grounds itself in stark reality." And per the Hollywood Reporter (July 31, 2019), Leonardo DiCaprio opined, in reference to Euphoria, to People magazine, "That show is amazing!"

Netflix’s and Flatiron Books’ HIS & HERS: Age-Gap Orgy in Woods, Oral for A in Classroom, and Sleepover Sex in Bedroom!

After I studied His & Hers (2026), I searched for the differences between the #1 Netflix series and the Best of #BookTok novel, and the results were, in hindsight, shockingly understated, because it was not until I compared the two did I learn the scandalous differences. 

Here’s the publisher’s (understated) synopsis for Alice Feeney’s His & Hers: A Novel (Flatiron Books, 2020):

When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

When Anna matriculated at St. Hilary’s High School for Girls, 15-year-old Rachel took her “under her wings”. Rachel, who was described as “slim, [and] pretty” with “pretty blue eyes”, “pretty feet”, “beautiful blond hair”, and “snow white skin”, taught Anna how to apply makeup, and Rachel got Anna “little presents all the time”, like, “lip gloss [...] tops and skirts that were a tad too tight”, and for “an early birthday present”, “a small bottle of [diet] pills”.

Rachel didn’t understand why Anna wanted to invite Catherine, whom was described as a “lonely-looking girl, with hair and eyebrows so blond, they were almost white”, to join their table at lunch. After Rachel said, “You know, being too nice is a sign of weakness,” she “picked up her can of Coke and left the cafeteria. “Rachel returned a few minutes later” and encouraged Anna to invite Catherine to their table. After Catherine arrived, Rachel apologized for any past indiscretions, and she offered Catherine her Coke.  

His & Hers (2026): Rachel's "Piss"

“Five excruciating minutes later”, Catherine “[...] tilted her head right back, and took several gulps before realizing that something was wrong.” 

“You just drank my piss!” said Rachel, an enormous smile on her face once more.

Before it happened, Rachel, who was apparently into (teen) urophilia, had written a note to Anna: 

I pissed in the Coke can. If you tell her before she drinks it, then you’ll be the one sitting alone at lunch tomorrow. 

Unsurprisingly, Anna narrated, in reference to Anna: “[...] below the beautiful exterior, she had an ugly streak.” “Doing something wrong was often the only thing that made her feel right.”

In episode 3 of the series, Anna asked, in reference to Catherine, “Maybe we should invite her over?” Rachel replied, “Bring her to our table. I’m gonna go get another Coke.” Catherine reluctantly joined Anna, Helen, and Zoe. When Rachel returned, she accidentally knocked over Catherine’s beverage, and she insisted that Catherine drink her beverage. After taking two sips of Rachel’s beverage, Catherine said, “Tastes like something’s in it.” Rachel said, “There is. Piss,” and Rachel announced to other schoolgirls in the cafeteria, “She just drank my piss!”

Thus, in the novel, Catherine consumed “several gulps” of Rachel’s urine, but in the series, streamers watched Catherine take two sips. 

A week later in the novel, Rachel, surprisingly “the most popular” girl in Anna’s class, arrived at Anna’s house for a surprise sleepover. 

“I thought we’d have a sleepover; both our mums said it was okay!” Rachel said, running up the front path holding an overnight bag. 

After dinner, in Anna’s room, Rachel asked, “It’s warm tonight, isn’t it?” And then Rachel: "[...] unbuttoned her shirt, letting it fall to the floor, before reaching behind her back to unhook her bra.” 

Before Anna could fully change into her “PJs”, Rachel requested to take Anna’s photo. After Rachel took several photos of half-dressed Anna, Rachel “removed the rest of her clothes”, perused Anna’s posters and books, and climbed into bed beside Anna “still naked, and turned off the light.”

His & Hers (2026): Teen Anna (Kristen Maxwell)

Moments later, Rachel “slipped” her hand inside of Anna’s pyjama bottoms and kissed Anna. After Rachel was finished, she “slid her wet fingers” across Anna’s tummy and whispered, “That was nice, wasn’t it?” Anna narrated:

Then Rachel slipped her hand inside my pyjama bottoms, and I almost forgot how to breathe altogether.

‘Shh,’ she said, before kissing me on the cheek.

I didn’t move and I didn’t say anything. I just lay there, and let her touch me in a place that I had never been touched before. When she was finished, she slid her wet fingers across my tummy and wrapped her arm around my waist. She squeezed me tight, as though I were a favourite doll, then whispered something in my ear before falling asleep. 

“After a couple of months”, Rachel aggressively asked Helen, with her “Cleopatra-style black hair” and “check-bones so defined”, to write Rachel’s and Anna’s “English essays for Monday”, because they needed an A. Otherwise: “Anna won’t be allowed to have her birthday party next weekend.”

On Monday, after they turned in their essays to Mr. Richardson, the English teacher and an aspiring writer, Rachel “dragged” Anna into a bathroom cubicle, closed the door, and demanded, “Take your shirt off.” (Rachel made Catherine guard St. Hilary’s bathroom door, otherwise Rachel threatened to make Catherine do something worse than, “[...] drink piss out of a Coke can.”)

After Rachel unclasped Anna’s bra, Rachel gifted Anna, à la (teen) Paris Hilton, a Wonderbra.

“It’s a Wonderbra! I never wear anything else now; you’re going to love it,” said Rachel

“Look how much bigger they are now!” Rachel said [...] 

Next, Rachel “slowly applied” “strawberry-flavoured lip balm” “with her fingertip” to Anna’s lips. Then Rachel kissed Anna while Catherine watched as Anna “pushed her tongue inside” of Anna's mouth. Anna narrated:

She took a tiny tin of strawberry-flavoured lip balm out of her bag, and slowly applied some to my lips with her fingertip [...]  and kissed me.

[...] Catherine [...] stared at us the entire time Rachel’s lips were on mine. I stood as still as a statue while she pushed her tongue inside my mouth, fully aware that someone was watching.

[...] when Rachel kissed me again, I closed my eyes and kissed her back. 

His & Hers (2026): Wonderbra

In episode 4 of the series, in Anna’s bedroom, Anna modeled a new pink Juicy Couture velour tracksuit for Rachel, but she told Rachel that she couldn’t wear the pants outside unless she “cover[ed] the part that says ‘Juicy’.” And Anna she asked Rachel, “What do you think?” As Rachel rubbed the skin between Anna’s top and bottom, Rachel replied, “I think it’s super cute.” Then Rachel said, “I got something [for you] too. You can wear it to your [sweet sixteen] party next week. It’s a Wonderbra.” 

Rachel urged Anna to try on the Wonderbra immediately to “see if it works”, which it apparently did, because Rachel opined that Anna looked “amazing” and “so fuckin’ hot” in the Wonderbra.

Anna, “Thanks Rach.”

Rachel, “Try it on.”

Anna, “Right now?”

Rachel, “Well, don’t you wanna see if it works? I won’t look.”

Rachel, “Your tits look amazing! You’re so fuckin’ hot.”

His & Hers (2026): Anna Models for Rachel

Subsequently, Zoe, Helen, and Catherine arrived. Zoe brought a bottle of vodka, and Helen complemented Anna, “Shit. You look hot.” As Zoe poured drinks, Rachel said, “Let’s get some pics.” 

Anna protested, “Wait, let me put my top back on.”

Rachel protested, “Come on, pose. Like a model.”

Anna acquiesced and posed like a teen bra model in her new Wonderbra for Rachel’s Polaroids. 

Thus, in the novel, Rachel gifted Anna the Wonderbra in St. Hilary’s bathroom, where they shared a girl-on-girl kiss while Catherine watched and guarded the door, but in the series, Anna received the Wonderbra in her bedroom, where she modeled it for Rachel’s camera. 

In the novel, Rachel and Anna, in their field hockey kilts, were “pulled out of gym class”, because they had been “caught cheating” by Mr. Richardson. Anna was distraught, but Rachel told Anna, “Try not to worry,” Rachel promised Anna that “everything will be okay,” and she told Anna to “meet me in our secret place”. 

Shortly thereafter, Rachel returned “with a big smile on her face”, asked for gum, informed Anna that she needed to brush her teeth, and told Anna that they both got A grades on their English essays. 

“Ten minutes later, she appeared in the clearing with a big smile on her face.

‘Don’t suppose you’ve got a mint or some chewing gum?’ she asked.

I shook my head.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll get some later. Need to brush my teeth too.’

‘Why?’

‘Never mind,’ she said, then hugged me. ‘Everything is OK again, you don’t need to worry. We’ll both get A grades for those essays we just handed in [...] .’

Somehow, Anna didn’t conceptualize that Rachel had performed oral sex on Mr. Richardson for two As. Thus, after Rachel dismissed more of Anna’s inquiries, she slid her hand up Anna’s kilt and pushed Anna’s “knickers to one side”. Once Anna’s “knees started to shake”, Rachel let her “lie down on the forest floor”, where she let Rachel “do whatever she wanted.”

“I don’t understand. How did you get Mr Richardson to change his mind?”

“Doesn’t matter,”’ she whispered, then slid her free hand up my hockey skirt.

Her fingers pushed my knickers to one side [...] When my knees started to shake, she let me lie down on the forest floor, and, as usual, I let her do whatever she wanted.

“Feel better?” she asked afterwards.

“[...] we should head back to the changing rooms,” Rachel said. “Do you have any chewing gum in your bag when we get there?”

Due to Rachel’s need for a mint, chewing gum, and the urgency to brush her teeth, readers can safely infer that she finished her English teacher orally. 

At Anna’s 16th birthday party, Rachel made tequila slammers, which made Anna feel “pretty drunk.” After more drinks, Rachel, Helen, Zoe, Anna, and Catherine “all did one another’s hair and makeup.” Zoe, with her “strawberry blond hair” and “pierced belly button”, brought some “skimpy dresses, low-cut tops, and skirts so short they looked like belts”. Interestingly, since Zoe was known at St. Hilary’s to be good with a sewing machine, à la Gwyneth Paltrow, “half the school[girls] had paid her to take up the hems of their skirts.” Eventually, Rachel directed everyone to the woods for “a big surprise”.

As they approached the wooded area, Anna noticed “four men sitting on makeshift log benches”. The men were “much older” than the sweet sixteen party girls, but that didn’t stop Rachel, Helen, and Zoe from sitting on the men’s laps before Rachel commenced an outdoor age-gap orgy. 

His & Hers (2026): Teen Helen (Tiffany Ho)

Rachel led Anna “to the nearest man” whom rubbed Anna’s bare leg. The men took out their wallets and handed Rachel a “handful of notes”. Thereby, revealing that Rachel, Helen, and Zoe were teen sex workers. After Rachel gave Anna a little white pill, she “stuck her tongue deep inside” Anna’s mouth. Consequently: “The men clapped and cheered while they watched.” Then Rachel pulled the top of Anna’s dress down and the bottom of Anna’s dress up, which prompted Rachel’s disposable camera to cheer: “Clickety-click. Clickety-click. Clickety-click.”

As Rachel kissed and stroked Anna, Helen was “on her knees in front of one of the men. He had a fistful of her shiny black hair.” Zoe was topless while a “man had his hand up Zoe’s skirt”. And Catherine was: “[...] completely naked and facedown in the dirt. One man was on top of her, and another appeared to be waiting.”

Rachel slid her fingers between Anna’s legs, which Anna narrated “felt so nice” but that was only until one of the men squeezed Anna’s breast while he masturbated. Anna narrated:

“Come on, don’t be a cock tease, at least suck it or something,’ said the man who was touching me. ‘We’ve all paid good money to celebrate your birthday with you. Be a good girl [...]”

After Anna protested, Rachel informed Anna that having age-gap sex for money was par for the course for her, Helen, and Zoe. As Rachel held Anna down, Rachel told Anna to “grow up”, because it’s “just sex” and that it only hurts the first time; thus, Anna should, “Try to relax.”

“Get off me,’ I [Anna] whispered.

‘You wanted to be part of our gang, well, this is what our gang does,’ Rachel said, trying to hold me down. ‘How do you think I paid for your new clothes and the highlights in your hair? Grow up, Anna. It’s just sex. It will hurt the first time, but then you’ll be fine, I promise. Try to relax.” 

Anna escaped, but before she covered her naked body and “ran all the way home in bare feet without looking back”, she “watched in horror for a little while” as Rachel took photos of the men having their way with Catherine. 

His & Hers (2026): Anna's Sweet Sixteen

In episode 6 of the series, Anna rescued Catherine from the men whom were attempting to force Catherine into an orgy. Subsequently, Catherine watched in horror as the men began to have their way with a screaming Anna. As Rachel, Zoe, and Helen watched approvingly, one of the four men said in reference to Anna, “I’m gonna give this bitch a birthday present she’ll never fucking forget.” And as one of the men took a crying Anna from behind, Rachel, Zoe, and Helen lovingly sang “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Anna. Happy Birthday to you.”

In the novel, readers learned that, despite only being 15, Rachel got what she desired via sex. If her own sexuality wasn’t enough, Rachel sold semi-nudes of other schoolgirls to men. She sold the photographs from the orgies, too. After the schoolgirls were “willing to take off all their clothes, and let her take pictures of them knowingly”, Rachel photographed classmates with their “[e]yes half closed but legs wide open” with the men “sticking themselves inside things they shouldn’t.” Consequently, Rachel earned a lot of money. Anna’s mother narrated:

Rachel Hopkins used sex to get what she wanted. When that wasn’t enough, she used other people. It started with her grooming school friends, taking semi-naked pictures of them, and selling the results to men at the local pub [...] She earned good money [...] When the men got bored of one girl, so did she, and moved her attention and affection to another.

Her photography started to get a little more inventive and adventurous too. Teenage girls were filled with alcohol and drugs, until they were willing to take off all their clothes, and let her take pictures of them knowingly. Eyes half closed but legs wide open. [The men] sticking themselves inside things they shouldn’t.

Rachel’s age-gap relations went beyond her teen years. For example, when she was in her “late thirties”, her husband was 82 (i.e.,  “[more than] old enough to be her father”).

In the end, Anna’s mother described Rachel in the novel as a “two-faced slut” and a “selfish Barbie doll, who stole [...] men from their wives.” 

Unsurprisingly, His & Hers was a Best of #BookTok and #1 Netflix series.