The Stunning Transformation Of Taylor Momsen

The following article contains references to substance abuse and suicide.

On November 17, 2000, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" opened in theaters and introduced the world to Taylor Momsen. The rosy-cheeked 7-year-old starred as Cindy Lou Who. Little Momsen was a newcomer to Hollywood, but she managed to stand out among a cast of superstars like Jim Carrey, Molly Shannon, and Christine Baranski. The mega-talented youngster seemingly came out of nowhere. In actuality, though, Momsen was a burgeoning star from St Louis, Missouri. She was born on July 26, 1993, to parents who nudged her into show business at an early age.

After making her film debut as the saccharin-sweet Cindy Lou Who, Momsen moved on to other projects in Hollywood and, eventually, music. After several world tours, a platinum single, and a record-shattering music career, the formidable frontwoman is just getting started.

These days, Taylor Momsen is known as many things, including a style queen, a feminist icon, and a rock 'n' roll goddess — just don't call her "Grinch Girl." 

Like many child actors, Taylor Momsen started performing before she could even write her name. Her first career move was a modeling contract, which she obtained at the tender age of 2. By age 3, she'd started appearing in commercials for popular brands like Snuggle and Shake 'N Bake.

Speaking with Revolver Magazine in 2011, Momsen got candid about the ugly side of being a child actor. "No 2-year-old wants to be working, but I had no choice," she revealed (via Us Weekly). "My whole life, I was in and out of school. I didn't have friends. I was working constantly and I didn't have a real life." However, Momsen prefers to look on the bright side when it comes to her unconventional childhood. "One of the things I am so grateful for is that it taught me to have a very strong work ethic," she told Louder. "I'm not sure I would have that if I did not start working at such a young age."

In the late '90s, Momsen moved on from commercials to minor roles in TV series, like "Cosby" and "Early Edition." She was gaining traction as an actor, but her big break was still a few years away. 

When Taylor Momsen landed the role of Cindy Lou Who, the adorably plucky child who befriends the Grinch and helps save Christmas, in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." As Momsen recalled, filming "The Grinch" wasn't always easy. The job called for rigorous rehearsals, and Momsen's hair and makeup took hours to complete. She also performed most of her own stunts, including the scene where Cindy Lou falls through the Grinch's trap door.

In the end, though, it was all worth it. "Getting to work with [director] Ron Howard and Jim Carrey was just amazing," she told "Today." "And, I mean, Jim Carrey's performance alone is so incomparable. To be a part of something at such a young age that to this day ... brings happiness and joy to the world is such an amazing thing." 

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" earned a whopping $345 million at the box office and launched Momsen to overnight celebrity status. Suddenly, she was appearing on talk shows and attending red-carpet events — she even got to meet Queen Elizabeth II at a London screening of "The Grinch." Looking back on her connection to Cindy Lou Who, Momsen told "Today" in 2020, "I'm kind of the same person. ... I grew up, but I think deep down, I've still got a lot of Cindy Lou Who in me."

In "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Cindy Lou Who famously expresses her Yuletide doubts with a song called "Where Are You, Christmas?" Taylor Momsen recorded the song in a professional music studio, which was a first-time experience for the young actor. In a 2020 interview with "Today," Momsen recounted how much she loved the experience of singing into a microphone and working with professional sound equipment. She gushed, "It was such an impactful moment in my life because it made me go, 'I wanna make music for the rest of my life.'"

The experience truly was life-changing for Momsen. She started singing, playing guitar, and writing songs regularly. Inspired by groups like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and The Doors, Momsen dreamed of joining a rock band. Several years after recording the song for "The Grinch," Momsen formed her band, The Pretty Reckless, and she never looked back. "Music has this healing quality to it," the star told Elle. "I feel so fortunate that I found that in music at such a young age. I found that in my writing I can express myself fully and understand myself and work through whatever I need to work through personally through music and help others with feelings that they may not be able to express in another outlet along the way by sharing that."

After "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Taylor Momsen returned to school and settled into a semi-normal life. Unfortunately, her classmates weren't as welcoming as she hoped they would be. Momsen struggled to fit in and was bullied for her role as Cindy Lou Who. 

"'The Grinch' changed my life in a multitude of ways — one of them being I was made fun of relentlessly," Momsen revealed on an episode of "Podcrushed." "So every time I would start a new school or go somewhere else, I don't even think the kids knew my name. I was just 'Grinch Girl.' ... Not even the character name, just 'Grinch Girl.'"

By the age of 12, Momsen started making friends, and her "Grinch Girl" status had faded. Things were finally falling into place — until she was offered a role in a promising new series called "Gossip Girl." Momsen wanted to stay in school and enjoy her newfound friends, but, as she explained on "Podcrushed," "larger powers" convinced her to take the job. 

Taylor Momsen moved to New York City to embark on the next chapter of her acting career. She joined the "Gossip Girl" cast in 2007 to play Dan Humphrey's sister, Jenny, the rebellious fashionista who aspires to climb the social ladder at her prestigious prep school. Momsen was just 12 years old when she filmed the series pilot. As the youngest cast member, she struggled to bond with her much older co-stars. "I was kind of going through the awkward, shy thing," Momsen confessed on "Podcrushed." She continued, saying, "I was by myself a lot ... I didn't have my own clique ... I was the new girl, I was 'Grinch Girl,' I was whatever. I was always kind of in this weird, isolated world."

Nevertheless, the series became a runaway success. But Momsen's "Gossip Girl" fame didn't come without a cost. As a young teen, she was targeted by the paparazzi. "They would photograph me on set ... as my character and put it in the tabloids as Taylor Momsen and say, 'Taylor Momsen's wearing this and Taylor Momsen's blah, blah, blah,'" the star revealed. "And that started to really bug me because my identity was getting, kind of, taken over." 

To reclaim her individuality, Momsen embraced an edgier aesthetic. She cut her hair into a short, platinum bob and started wearing gobs of black eyeliner. Inspired by the change in Momsen, her "Gossip Girl" stylist gave Jenny Humphrey a similarly gothy makeover on the show. 

By 2009, Momsen was at the top of her game. Not only was she adored for her role on "Gossip Girl," but she'd also started gaining recognition for her band, The Pretty Reckless. As her popularity soared, Momsen captured tons of media attention. Unfortunately, she was also pursued by tabloids. Some gossip magazines attempted to paint the teenager as a promiscuous, chain-smoking party girl. Others accused her of having plastic surgery while simultaneously picking apart her appearance. 

In the summer of 2010, Momsen was performing onstage with her band when someone photographed her from an angle that revealed her underwear and tampon string. The snapshot circulated the internet, generating a dumpster fire of misogynistic ridicule. With one click of a camera lens, the actor-singer was reduced to a punchline. "My tampon string was put on the Internet when I was 15 because some a**hole shot up my dress and it made big headlines," she said (via E! News). "For a year, if you Googled 'Taylor Momsen' the tampon photo was the first thing that came up."

Ultimately, Momsen chose to ignore the tabloids altogether. "I don't read them," the songstress told BBC in 2010. "I don't even care, at all. If you read them and you care then it'll just destroy you. It's stupid to care about any of it."

By the time Momsen was 17, she was in the midst of a dramatic transformation. Her music career was gaining steam as Pretty Reckless had just released their debut album, "Light Me Up." Eager to shed her bubblegum image, Momsen started wearing revealing outfits, towering platforms, and fishnet stockings. She was also becoming increasingly disenchanted with her childhood acting career. Her restlessness peaked during her final season as a regular on "Gossip Girl," as she started to cause problems on set.

In 2010, "Gossip Girl" guest star Tim Gunn gave a scathing interview about Momsen's behavior. While speaking with E! News, Gunn said of Momsen, "What a diva! She was pathetic, she couldn't remember her lines, and she didn't even have that many. I thought to myself 'why are we all being held hostage by this brat?'"

Rumors about Momsen and her antics began making their rounds, and she was labeled "volatile" and "the Next Lindsay Lohan" by some media outlets. Meanwhile, tabloids continued printing sensationalized stories about her appearance. Some critics framed her behavior as a desperate cry for help — but according to Momsen, it was all part of her journey to self-liberation. "The phase was the stripper heels and the outrageous outfits," the singer told People in 2021. "But at the time, that didn't feel like a phase. That was very much who I was and how I was comfortable dressing. Like anyone, I grew and I matured. But rock and roll was never a phase."

Taylor Momsen's pivot from actor to musician started in 2009 when she formed The Pretty Reckless with lead guitarist Ben Phillips. Soon came a successful first album, followed by several tours. Her music career was taking off fast, but there was one problem: "Gossip Girl" was still underway, so Momsen's time was divided between two careers. In 2011, the "Just Tonight" singer had a revelation and decided to quit acting. 

"It was like a click," she recalled on "Podcrushed." She continued, saying, "I woke up one morning and went, 'Wait a second. I don't have to do this? I don't have to do this other job? I can just play in my band and tour and write songs? ... I can just do that?'" Ultimately, the producers of "Gossip Girl" agreed to write her character out of the show. "I'm forever grateful and thankful to them for that," she said. 

To fans who knew her as the once-preppy Jenny Humphrey on "Gossip Girl," Momsen's glam-rock transformation may have seemed sudden. But, in fact, it was years in the making. As she told Elle, acting was never really her calling. "It was just something I always did, I kind of didn't know anything differently and music was something I was always doing, just behind the scenes. I was always writing songs and playing instruments and singing and it just took."

Throughout the 2010s, Taylor Momsen and her band released several chart-topping singles and garnered the attention of fellow rock icons — including Chris Cornell of the legendary grunge band Soundgarden. In 2017, The Pretty Reckless joined Soundgarden on tour, and Momsen was thrilled to share the stage with one of her musical idols. But tragically, Chris Cornell died by suicide on the final night of the joint tour. The news left Momsen shocked and heartbroken. "I was not mentally prepared to handle that, and it really took me down," the vocalist told Interview. "We were in the middle of a tour, and I very quickly realized that I couldn't get on stage every night and be okay. I couldn't fake it. So I canceled the tour and went home."

Less than a year later, Momsen suffered another heartwrenching loss. Her best friend and producer, Kato Khandwala, died in a motorcycle accident. "That was the nail in the coffin for me," she recalled. "I spiraled real fast." Devastated by the tragedies, Momsen withdrew from the world and lost her will to make music. "I was done," she told Louder. "I fell into such a hole of darkness, depression and substance abuse. Essentially I gave up on life."

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Following the deaths of Chris Cornel and Kato Khandwala, Momsen struggled to find her creative spark. But when she finally did get the nerve to start writing lyrics again, the words came flowing out. Momsen poured her heart out, filling her notebook with stanzas about death, grieving, and hope. Eventually, the bare bones of an album emerged.

The Pretty Reckless created the record "Death By Rock And Roll," an ode to Momsen's grief and a tribute to lost loved ones. For Momsen, the process of creating the album doubled as a method for coping with her sorrows. "As cliché as it may sound, it was very literally music that saved my life," she told Guitar World. "Writing this album is what really kind of pulled me back to life."

Music has also given the singer a heartwarming way to honor her Khandwala. "Death By Rock And Roll" opens with the sound of his footsteps. As Momsen explained to Tuonela Magazine, the sound byte serves as a reminder of Khandwala's influence on her life and music. "It was very important to me that he's still part of this record, you know," Momsen stated. "He's a part of this band even though he's no longer with us, I refuse to let his memory die."

Since bursting onto the music scene in 2009, Taylor Momsen has proven to be an unstoppable hitmaking force. Alongside her bandmates, The Pretty Reckless frontwoman has broken a slew of Billboard records with no signs of slowing down. Their first hit single, "Heaven Knows," soared to No. 1 on the Billboard rock charts in 2014. The band quickly followed up with two more chart-toppers, making them the first female-fronted group to achieve three consecutive No. 1 rock singles on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart.

By 2020, The Pretty Reckless racked up their fifth No. 1 single, "Death By Rock And Roll." Momsen told Forbes that the news was "very humbling and exciting." She added, "And to see the success that it's having and knowing that it's connecting to people and the fans around the world, it's just the highest compliment you can get as an artist and as a songwriter." The band's first hit, "Heaven Knows," went platinum the same year.

In 2021, their hit, "Only Love Can Save Me Now," also climbed to the top of the Billboard rock charts. With that, The Pretty Reckless Became the first female-fronted rock band to land a whopping seven No. 1 singles.