Gossip Girl and Friends made me want to move to NYC — I visited to see if the city still lives up to the hype of millennial TV shows

Queenie on the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art - (Queenie Shaikh/The Independent)

“I’ve wanted to live in New York ever since Gossip Girl aired,” I overheard a woman my age confide wistfully to her partner on the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The steps were packed with people trying to find the exact spot where Blair and Serena had their daily ritual breakfast yoghurt. Yellow taxis whizzed by, the smell of overpriced, freshly baked bagels from a nearby cart filled the air, and I smoothed down my red jacket for a photo I’d mentally choreographed years ago. I wasn’t the only one trying to relive a scene from a show that defined our teenage years.

For millennials raised on a diet of Gossip Girl, Friends, Sex and the City, and The Devil Wears Prada, NYC was the dream — a stylish, fast-paced fantasy where careers were built in heels, friendships over brunch, and meet-cutes in bodegas. Now, over a decade since my favourite shows ended and well into adulthood, I finally made my NYC pop culture trip – not just to sightsee, but to find out what’s real, what’s changed, and whether the New York seen on screen still exists.