This article first appeared in Harper's Bazaar Singapore, the leading fashion glossy on the best of style, beauty, design, travel and the arts. Go to harpersbazaar.com.sg and follow @harpersbazaarsg on Instagram; harpersbazaarsingapore on Facebook. The June 2022 issue is out on newsstands now.

SINGAPORE - Whitney Peak, the star of the new Gossip Girl (2021 to present), is blowing up.

As the lead in one of the buzziest television shows in recent years, the 19-year-old is having a moment.

Born in Uganda and raised in Canada, Peak got her start as a teenage actress with small but memorable roles in Netflix's Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (2018 to 2020) and Aaron Sorkin's biographical crime film Molly's Game (2017), opposite Jessica Chastain.

When her agent told her that HBO Max was rebooting Gossip Girl, which aired from 2007 to 2012, the then 16-year-old sent in her audition tape.

The producers were so taken by Peak that they booked her instantly - a rarity in an industry where thousands of hopefuls compete for the same role (especially one as high-profile as this), often going through multiple tests.

Peak leads a new diverse cast - the old show got plenty of retrospective flak for its blinding whiteness - as fan favourite Zoya Lott, the only main character who does not come from money and, therefore, a proxy for the "regular people" watching the show who experience the rarefied realm of the show's uber-wealthy Manhattan teens through her eyes and ears.

The first season was a hit and production is now under way for the second. It is in her newly adopted home city of New York that Peak - an old soul with a cherubic teenage face - was photographed for this portfolio.

What did you love most about working on Gossip Girl and what were some of the biggest surprises?

I was surprised at how exhausting it got. The show is a dream come true, and then you start doing it and get tired, then you beat yourself up for feeling that way because you are so lucky to be in this position.

It can become this whole cycle of not allowing yourself to rest because you feel like you should be grateful and keep going. So many people would love to be in this position.

When you are on set, you are interacting with so many people, and giving and consuming so much energy. If you don't take a break, you are going to burn out really easily - that was one of the first things I learnt.

What was really fun was getting to film at all the locations we did. In every episode, there was an event somewhere amazing - whether it is Webster Hall, The Plaza Hotel or even just Central Park.

We booked out the entire space, so it would just be us. It really was just the best tour of New York City that anybody could ever get.

How do you pick your projects these days?

If I read a script that is unlike anything I have ever read before, just sounds exciting or makes me giddy to think about it, I think that is a sign of a good project. That is when I reach for it and shoot my shot.

I think anything different from what I have been doing or have done in the past excites me. If the character is very far from my reality, that definitely intrigues me.

What is it about characters like those that draw you in?

I just want to view the world from a different person's viewpoint, even if only for a moment. I think you learn a lot when you are able to step out of yourself and look at the world through another's eyes. I want to play, be challenged and get the chance to be fully enveloped in a character or a universe or a world.

Is that your favourite part about acting?

I think so. I think every opportunity in life is a chance to learn. Even if it is just an audition and I read a script that really mesmerises me, I learn about the world just by looking at life differently than I normally do.

I do think that is my favourite part - just stepping out of yourself and bringing a little of yourself into the next character you are playing.

There is something refreshing and exhilarating about it, but there is also something so emotional because, depending on the character, it sparks an empathy or an excitement or a trauma in you that makes you either appreciate or acknowledge different perspectives and experiences of life better.

What excites you about the industry today and what frustrates you?

It is actually the same answer for both. What excites me is the direction we are taking with inclusivity and diversity in film and television, but what frustrates me is also that it is a step we still have to take.

It is not something that is already written in stone; it is not the norm yet. It is something we are working towards, which is a little frustrating because it should just be fair chances for everybody. Race, ethnicity, religion, shape, size, gender - all these should not matter.

As much progress as we are making, it is still a little bit of a pain to know that it should have always just been this way. It should be a big duh.

And being on a hit show like Gossip Girl, you are a visible face of that progress. How does that feel?

I don't think of it that way. I don't think I am a beacon of progress or something that is life-changing.

But I guess it is really refreshing to think about how kids around the world, kids that look like me or any of the cast - or maybe not even look like us, but relate and connect to us - are going to watch the show and not feel so alone, and feel like they do have a place in the world, and know they have any opportunity in the world if they just take it.

Is it daunting to be looked at as a role model?

Oh, god (laughs). I don't know. I can't think of myself as a role model. The second you put yourself on that pedestal, you are already kind of killing the humility and morality of it.

But if there is anybody out there who is looking at me like that, I think that is very motivating, inspiring and incredibly humbling because I definitely don't perceive myself that way. I am just a regular old person just living my life.