My mom modeled and made clothes, so I always had such an appreciation for design.
I was in a show choir. I can't sing or dance to save my life, but I was very passionate. People said my parents paid the choir director to let me in. It was actually the parents who started that one!
My dream as a passionate cook has been to go to Le Cordon Bleu. Never could my most incredible dream have lived up to the experience. The food, the lesson, the chef, the ingredients - all the best of the best. I see why Le Cordon Bleu is world-renowned.
I'll never forget the time my mother showed up with her best friend and two daughters, and all four of us dressed up in matching clothes, shoes and hats to go pick up my brother from school. I thought it was a fun thing to do, but we stepped outside my brother's school and he was mortified!
When I moved to New York, I started switching fragrances. Between different seasons I would change fragrance, or if I was going out for a big fancy night versus going out in the daytime. But I also found that I was changing and growing so much.
My greatest passion is my personal life.
I'll go to an event wearing some designer gown and tens of thousands of dollars in jewels that were lent to me for the night, and I'll walk around and meet people who I always thought were such a big deal.
When I was a child, I probably should have been medicated about my obsession with The Spice Girls. I had the Buffalo shoes, a customised Baby Spice necklace - when I say custom-made, it was made out of plastic from the local mall - and a Union Jack dress.
When I see old movies with women in floor-length dressing gowns, or when they're going to the store and they've got a pillbox hat with a net over the eyes and white gloves, I'm offended that I can't go to the store like that.
Design, whether it's on your body or in your home, is the same thing. It's mixing different colors, different textures, and unexpected patterns - elements that you wouldn't often put together in an interesting way.
My mother had very humble beginnings - to put it mildly. Her dad built their home out of timber that he cut down on their land. No heat, no air-conditioning - 'no foolishness,' as he would call it.
I tend to like to make my statements more in fashion than in beauty, because what I normally respond to is when someone looks really effortless and deconstructed, beauty-wise, and they're fashion is really grand. Someone like Kate Moss is a great example.
After my first year on 'Gossip Girl,' everybody said, 'You've got to do a big commercial movie, ride this wave.'