She’s back! Blake Lively made her first red carpet appearance on Wednesday, November 16, after giving birth to her second daughter in September.
The Gossip Girl alum, 29, hit the L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Awards in New York City in a Lanvin ankle-length dress with a plunging neckline and sheer sleeves. Lively, who’s a L’Oréal Paris brand ambassador, went simple with her accessories, choosing a pair of nude strappy sandals and stud earrings. She wore her long blonde hair straight and side-parted, and flattered her features with a few coats of black mascara and a pink lip.
On the carpet, the Café Society star spoke about why she chose to attend this particular event. “The significance is that I think it is as important as ever to celebrate women and that’s what we get to do tonight,” she told reporters. “We get to celebrate 10 incredible women who spend their days changing the world. The woman who I’m celebrating tonight, Carly [Yoost, co-founder of the Child Rescue Coalition], has already found 7,500 predators — 2,500 children she’s saved from online pornography of children. I can’t even imagine going through that as a parent, so that’s incredible.”
In fact, empowering women and girls — specifically her first child with Ryan Reynolds, daughter James — is something that’s very important to Lively. “You just have to set an example,” she continued. “It’s so important in times like this. You can either curl up and be really depressed about the communities that are underserved or you can set that example for your children, and you just have to figure out how. That’s the hardest thing. If somebody just had a playbook and said ‘this is what you do,’ but it’s about making that extra bit of effort and that’s what tonight is.”
She also took a moment to reflect on some of her favorite red carpet dresses of 2016. “I had some pretty good gowns at Cannes this year,” she told reporters. “I had that Versace nude one that was pretty great and a beautiful Vivienne Westwood Cinderella gown — I think it was a tie between those two.”
