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" Michelle Trachtenberg had plenty of practice for her current role as a backstabbing, boyfriend-stealing bully on Gossip Girl: She was once the target of bullying herself.  &amp;quot;When I was 13, we moved to L.A. from Brooklyn. Kids were pretty cruel to me,&amp;quot; she says, sitting in the window of a West Village caf\u00E9 on a fiercely rainy day in New York City. &amp;quot;I got ridiculed, ostracized, ganged-up on, you name it.&amp;quot;  Trachtenberg has come a long way since high school. She stars in two buzzy fall TV shows\u2014the new hospital drama Mercy and Gossip Girl\u2014as well as in the Bruce Willis flick A Couple of Dicks, due out next year. Now she&amp;#039;s also collaborating with designer Monica Botkier on a new handbag, with a chunk of the proceeds going to Oxfam International, the charity that fights poverty around the world. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re lucky in this country,&amp;quot; says Trachtenberg. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never understood people who\u2014for lack of a better word\u2014crap all over their opportunity. I&amp;#039;m very grateful.&amp;quot; She pauses to point and laugh at a rain-drenched rat darting for cover outside the window. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the way my mommy raised me,&amp;quot; she continues, describing her Russian-born mother, a former puppeteer who worked hard to raise her two daughters as a single mom. &amp;quot;Yes,&amp;quot; she adds with a wry smile, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m 24 and still say mommy.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.marieclaire.com/culture/charity/news/a3515/michelle-trachtenberg-oxfam-bag/>