--- title: Blake Lively Interview on Her Early Career description: The 'Shallows' actress and mother of two shares details on her humble first New York apartment and more in a new video. canonical: https://time.com/4745551/blake-lively-on-career/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-18T22:38:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:56.866Z og:title: Always Relatable Blake Lively Had a Tiny First Apartment og:description: She stocked it with "too many cake pans." og:url: https://time.com/4745551/blake-lively-on-career/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Always Relatable Blake Lively Had a Tiny First Apartment twitter:description: She stocked it with "too many cake pans." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Blake Lively's Relatable Tiny First Apartment Had Way 'Too Many Cake Pans' > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=57c39c9d-df39-4717-b248-ea63e62943b8&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 18, 2017 10:38 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 18, 2017 10:38 PM UTC Blake Lively is one of [_Variety_](http://variety.com/2017/film/news/blake-lively-child-rescue-coalition-child-pornography-1202032679/)‘s “Power of Women” cover stars this year, so she took part in a behind-the-scenes video with a few unexpected tidbits about her background. For instance, the glossy star—perhaps best known for her portrayal of the iconic and uber-wealthy Upper East Sider [Serena van der Woodsen](http://time.com/4064384/blake-lively-gossip-girl-audition/) in _Gossip Girl_—had a much more humble start to her own life in New York. “My first New York apartment was really, really, really tiny,” she explains. “The kitchen and the closet were the same room.” This will sound familiar to other New York transplants dealing with the [notoriously tricky](http://time.com/4581230/hong-kong-apartments-property-sale-rent-small-housing/) housing that the city offers. Celebrities: even their early experiences in real estate _can_ be relatable. “I had too many cake pans that I brought from home that I had growing up that my mom gave me,” she further elaborated. OK, so, maybe not _that_ relatable after all. Lively also shared advice from her mother, who was a working woman with five kids: “Don’t compromise one for the other, and you can do both fantastically. And some days, you’ll do both horribly. As long as you’re happy and give your family the love and attention they need, it all sort of falls into place,” she said. Lively, of course, is married to [fellow actor Ryan Reynolds](http://time.com/4621986/ryan-reynolds-blake-lively-deadpool-anxiety/), with whom she has two young children. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4745551/blake-lively-on-career/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4745551/blake-lively-on-career/"},"headline":"Blake Lively's Relatable Tiny First Apartment Had Way 'Too Many Cake Pans'","datePublished":"2017-04-18T22:38:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:56.866Z","description":"The 'Shallows' actress and mother of two shares details on her humble first New York apartment and more in a new video.","url":"https://time.com/4745551/blake-lively-on-career/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4745551/blake-lively-on-career/","name":"Blake Lively's Relatable Tiny First Apartment Had Way 'Too Many Cake Pans'"}}]}] ```