Because I'm Worth It

Infobox Book |
name = Because I'm Worth It
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Cecily von Ziegesar
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Gossip Girl
genre = Young adult novel
publisher = Little, Brown
release_date = 2003
media_type = Print (Paperback & Hardback)
pages = 232 pg
isbn = ISBN 978-0316909686
preceded_by = All I Want is Everything
followed_by = I Like It Like That

"Because I'm Worth It" is the fourth book in the bestselling Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar. It was released by Little, Brown in 2003.

Plot summary

This fourth best-selling novel started with Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen taking over the Monday peer group, with Jenny Humphrey, her new best friend Elise Wells, and some lower-graders. Later, leaving Serena to her peer group to tell them how much she loved her new boyfriend Aaron Rose and while Blair gets a new haircut and wardrobe, she gets a stroke of good luck when an alumni interviewer from Yale and her father's colleague, Owen Wells, calls her and tells her that Yale had given her a second chance to make up for the first one she had messed up.

But Owen turned to be hotter than Blair imagined, and she ended up "almost" having sex with him in a hotel suite. Unfortunately, she found out that Owen had a daughter, Elise "Wells", and becomes convinced he was a fat liar and a bastard for hiding it from her. Although he had told her that he had a family, she was still convinced that he was nothing but a loser. With this, she blew her second chance of getting to Yale.

Serena, on the other hand, also had a stroke of good luck. While shopping for a jacket to give to Aaron at Les Best, a man named Guy Reed, a part of the Les Best couture, decided to put her on the Fashion Week fashion show that starred the Les Best clothing. When the whole show was a hit, and she was finally back to the good graces of everybody, she even scored a perfume ad for Les Best with her signature scent of sandalwood and patchouli. On the photo shoot for the ad, where she wore a sundress in the middle of February at the park, Aaron broke up with her, with the reason that things weren't exactly working out.

Dan gets caught up in becoming a famous author after "Sluts" is published in the New Yorker. Vanessa was pleased when one of her movies was used as backdrop for a fashion show thanks to Ken Mogul. Each of them bask in their own talents and flirt harmlessly with some fans until Dan ends up cheating on Vanessa with a poet named Mystery Craze. Vanessa learns of this when she sees them all over each other on stage at a poetry reading. She is heartbroken. In the end Vanessa turns down Ken Mogul's offer to work on a film down because she wants to find her own way.

Elise Wells turns out to be more than a quiet little Freshman. When the class is told to write about a person in the class's body part she writes about Jenny's breasts. Later on she and Jenny experiment with some kissing but whilst Elise is into it, Jenny is kind of freaked by Elise's feelings, especially when Elise wants to be painted in the nude. Little J later meets a skinny blond-haired guy called Leo and all three of them hang out together, although Elise doesn't realize what's going on.

Nate's dealer supposedly moves away so Nate goes to the park to score some weed. It turns out that his dealer is there, working for the cops because he got caught, and Nate gets busted and sent to rehab. At rehab he meets a gorgeous heiress, Georgina, whom he helps overcome her drug addiction. Blair comes to Rehab after her disaster with Owen, in a bid to flirt with Nate. Once she realizes what's going on with Nate and Georgina she quickly leaves.