Background
Taylor Momsen was born on July 26, 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri to Michael and Collette Momsen. She has a younger sister who is also an actress. Throughout her youth she was raised religiously attending Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Schools, but has staded publicly that she is no longer religious. Momsen studied dance as a child at the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis and then attended the Professinal Performing Arts School in Manhattan for high school.
Acting
Monsen began acting at the age of 3 in a 1997 commercial for Shake N’ Bake. In 2000, she had a large role in Dr. Suess’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, playing Cindy Lou Who. Then in 2002, she played Gretel in Hansel and Gretel as well as the President’s daughter in Spy Kids 2: The Islands of Lost Dreams. After this period, Momsen did not have a role for three years, until her appearance in the 2006 film Saving Shiloh. Interestingly, Momsen was in the top three finalists for the role of Hannah Montana, but lost for the part to Miley Cyrus. In 2007, she won a role in the movie Underdog, and the Gus Van Sant film Paranoid Park.
Also in 2007, Momsen won her breakthrough television role in Gossip Girl, which has since developed a large cult follwing. After the third season her roles started to decline, which led to her announcing her departure from acting on August 16, 2011, to focus mainly on her music career.
Modeling
Momsen started acting under Ford models after her parents signed her up at age 2. She was signed to IMG models at age 14. Starting her career, she became the face of British fashion chain New Look for its spring/summer 2010 collection. She was also the face of Madonna’s 2010 fashion line “Material Girl”. She was also announced as a model for John Galliano’s women’s fragrance. Momsen has been cover girl on several magazines; Page Six Magazine in 2009, and Seventeen Magazine in 2010. She also covered French magazine Rock One’s, Revolver Magazine, FHM Magazine (including being list as #29 in their hot 100 issue.) Momsen was also Maxim’s cover girl in their November 2013 issue.
The Pretty Reckless
Momsen also started singing at a young age recording for her acting role in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She also recorded two additional Christmas songs, One Small Voice and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for a compilation album, Schools Out Christmas.
In March 2009, her band, the Pretty Reckless, signed a deal with Interscope Records, touring for the first time with The Veronicas on their Revenge is Sweeter Tour in 2009. Momsen began recording with guitarist Ben Phillips and began co-writing songs with him. In addition to performing as lead vocal, she also plays guitar. Her bands debut album, Light Me Up, landed number 6 in the UK, and number 18 in Ireland. Songs from her album have been featured in the movie Kick Ass, the Vampire Diaries, and Gossip Girl.
In 2011 The Pretty Reckless were supporting act for Evanescence during their fall tour. In 2012, the band toured as the main act throughout North America. Their single, Going to Hell, in 2014, marked their largest sales to date, selling 35,000 copies in its first week, which broke the band through a new threshold of fame.
Taylor Momsen 2017 net worth: $4 million
As of 2017, Taylor Momsen has a net worth of $4 million, mostly obtained from her music career, but also her historical royalties from acting and modeling. Congrats Taylor!
Check out some of Taylor’s most popular moments from both her acting and singing careers!:
Gossip Girl: The Complete Series
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas [Blu-ray]
Going To Hell (Deluxe Edition) [Explicit]