Leighton Meester is a firm feminist and thinks everybody should be.
The 28-year-old singer and former Gossip Girl star recently wrote an opinion piece for The Huffington Post entitled “I’m not a Tart: The Feminist Subtext of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men”. Now she’s reiterated her support of the push for gender equality.
“Yeah,” she told American radio show B-93.7’s Broadway’s Electric Barnyard when asked if she identified as a feminist. “It shouldn't be some sort of sensational news item. It's something that I think all people should say about themselves.”
Leighton famously starred as Blair Waldorf in the hit CW series. The show played out a domestic violence-ridden relationship between Blair and her boyfriend Chuck, and Leighton has since tried to steer her fans away from looking up to that model.
So it’s not surprising she’s not interested in a reunion.
“Nope,” Leighton said simply, when asked if there was a chance the cast would get together again.
The brunette beauty released her debut LP, Heartstrings, in October 2014. Her musical offerings have been described as “folk”, and she agrees.
“A lot of my influences are that style,” Leighton explained. “Also just an array of different genres but I think there’s definitely a pop structure to the whole thing, but also just… I guess it’s a lot different, it’s a departure from what I was doing before. So I’ve gone folk!”
One of her influences was Tim McGraw, her Country Strong co-star. After talking about how much she “enjoyed working with him” on the 2010 movie, Leighton commented on the fact that he owns an island with wife Faith Hill.
“He’s a very hardworking man, so I’d say he deserves it!” she laughed.
