Time's Most Influential People in the World

5 of 14: Blake Lively became the stand-out actress in CW's 'Gossip Girl' and has since caught the eye of directors and fashion heavy-weights like Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. Lively was made the face of the French fashion house Chanel, an honor which is rarely given to American actresses.

"Every now and then, an actor or actress manages to somehow channel the vitality of youth - that indefinable, natural, unprocessed glamour full of possibility and filled with anticipation for an endless future," director Baz Luhrman wrote of the actress.

(Pictured: Blake Lively appears in a still from 'Gossip Girl.') ( Photo / CW / Giovanni Runfino)