It girl - WikiHQ

thumb|right|Poster for the film [[It (1927 film)|"It" (1927), starring Clara Bow]]

An "it girl" is an attractive, well-known young woman who is perceived to have both sex appeal and a personality that is especially engaging.

The expression it girl originated in British upper-class society around the turn of the 20th century. It gained further attention in 1927 with the popularity of the Paramount Studios film It, starring Clara Bow. In the earlier usage, a woman was especially perceived as an "it girl" if she had achieved a high level of popularity without flaunting her sexuality. Today, the term is used more to apply simply to fame and beauty. The Oxford English Dictionary distinguishes between the chiefly American usage of "a glamorous, vivacious, or sexually attractive actress, model, etc.", and the chiefly British usage of "a young, rich woman who has achieved celebrity because of her socialite lifestyle".

The terms "it boy" or "it man" are sometimes used to describe a male exhibiting similar traits.

History

Early use

An early literary usage of it in this sense is found in a 1904 short story by Rudyard Kipling ("Mrs Bathurst" in Traffics and Discoveries), which contains the line "'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walk down a street."

Elinor Glyn, the notorious British novelist who wrote the book titled It and its subsequent screenplay, lectured:

Glyn first rose to fame as the author of the scandalous 1907 bestseller Three Weeks. She is widely credited with the invention of the "it girl" concept: although the slang predates her book and film, she was responsible for the term's impact on the culture of the 1920s.

In 1927, the Paramount Studios film was planned as a special showcase for its popular star Clara Bow, and her performance introduced the term "it" to the cultural lexicon. The film plays with the notion that "it" is a quality which eschews definitions and categories; consequently, the girl portrayed by Bow is an amalgam of an ingenue and a femme fatale, with some qualities later portrayed by Madonna's latter day "Material Girl" incarnation. By contrast, Bow's rival in the script is equally young and comely, as well as rich and well-bred, yet is portrayed as not possessing "it". Clara Bow later said she wasn't sure what "it" meant, although she identified Lana Turner as "it girls". She also specialised in dressing trendsetting stage and film performers, ranging from the stars of the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway to silent screen icons such as Mary Pickford and Irene Castle.

As early as 1917, Lucile herself used the term "it" in relation to style in her fashion column for Harper's Bazaar: "... I saw a very ladylike and well-bred friend of mine in her newest Parisian frock ... she felt she was 'it' and perfectly happy."

Modern "it girls"

In the late 1970s the term distanced itself from Bow, as magazines used it to describe Diana Ross. Since the 1980s, the term "it girl" has been used slightly differently, referring to a wealthy, normally unemployed, young woman who is pictured in tabloids going to many parties often in the company of other celebrities, receiving media coverage in spite of no particular personal achievements or TV hosting / presenting. The writer William Donaldson observed that, having initially been coined in the 1920s, the term was applied in the 1990s to describe "a young woman of noticeable 'sex appeal' who occupied herself by shoe shopping and party-going".

In 2023, Matthew Schneier for The Cut, defined the New York "it girl" as being: "Famous for being out, famous for being young, famous for being fun, famous for being famous." Schneier added that an "it girl" does not define itself that way, but that "magazine writers, newspaper columnists, photographers" do.

Examples

1900s

Evelyn Nesbit (1884–1967), American artists' model, photographic model, chorus girl, and silent film actress, whose rise to fame around 1900 has been called "the birth of the 'It Girl'".
Brenda Dean Paul (1907–1959), British silent film actress and socialite.

1940s

Gloria Vanderbilt (1924–2019), American socialite, sole heiress to Vanderbilt fortune.

1950s

Brigitte Bardot (1934–2025), French actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist.

1960s

Marianne Faithfull (1946–2025), British singer, part of the British Invasion and Swinging London scene.
Jane Holzer (b. 1940), American art collector, former model, actress and Warhol superstar.
Peggy Lipton (1946–2019), actress and model known from the hit TV show The Mod Squad.
Ali MacGraw (b. 1939), American actress and activist, her first job was as Diana Vreeland's assistant in the early 60s.
Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971), American actress, model, and Andy Warhol's muse, was dubbed "the it girl".

1970s

Marisa Berenson (b. 1947), American actress, model and granddaughter of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli.
Iman (b. 1955), Somali-American supermodel, entrepreneur, philanthropist and widow of David Bowie.
Margaux Hemingway (1954–1996), American model.
Bianca Jagger (b. 1945), Nicaraguan actress and activist, wife of Mick Jagger, and "it girl" of the Studio 54 disco scene.
Grace Jones (b. 1948), Jamaican singer, model and actress. "It girl" of the Studio 54 disco scene.

1980s

Edwige Belmore (1957–2015), French model, singer, artist and actress.
Lisa Edelstein (b. 1966), American actress, and part of the 80s club scene. She was dubbed New York City's "Queen of the Night" by Maureen Dowd in 1986.
Cornelia Guest (b. 1963), New York socialite, author and actress, considered an "it girl" of the 80s club scene.

1990s

Pamela Anderson (b. 1967), Canadian-American actress, model, media personality, and author.
Tamara Beckwith (b. 1970), English socialite and television personality, was widely described as an "it girl" in the 1990s.
Aerin Lauder (b. 1970), American socialite, businesswoman and billionaire heiress. Considered an "it girl" by Vanity Fair.
Kate Moss (b. 1974), English model. Considered one of the UK's most famous "it girls", Moss has been a muse to various fashion designers and contemporary artists; namely Marc Jacobs.
Annabelle Neilson (1969–2018), English socialite. Neilson was the longtime muse of Alexander McQueen.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (1971–2017), English socialite and television personality, was considered to be the foremost of the 1990s "it girls" in the United Kingdom.
Parker Posey (b. 1968), American actress, was considered by many to be the "it girl" of the burgeoning independent film scene of the 1990s after she played a hip, young socialite in the 1995 film Party Girl.
Chloë Sevigny (b. 1974), American actress and model, was described as an "it girl" by Jay McInerney in The New Yorker in 1994, because of her status as a fashion impresario.
Mischa Barton (b. 1986), British-American actress. Entertainment Weekly, as well as other tabloids, labelled her as an "It Girl" in the early 2000s.
Alexa Chung (b. 1983), English model and television personality. Described as the "21st century it girl."
Nicky Hilton (b. 1983), American socialite, member of the Hilton family by birth and of the Rothschild family through marriage.
Cory Kennedy (b. 1990), American Internet celebrity and model, described as "the Internet's First It Girl".
Tinsley Mortimer (b. 1975), American socialite and television personality.
Olivia Palermo (b. 1986), American socialite and television personality.
Charlotte Ronson (b. 1977), English fashion designer and socialite, based in the U.S.
Sara Schätzl (b. 1987), German writer and actress, was labelled an "it girl" by the German tabloid press in the late 2000s.

2010s

Petra Collins (b. 1992), Canadian artist, director of photography, fashion model and actress.
Bella Hadid (b. 1996), American model.
Gigi Hadid (b. 1995), American model and television personality.
Lori Harvey (born 1997), American model and socialite.
Kendall Jenner (b. 1995), American model and television personality.
Lupita Nyong'o (born 1983), Kenyan-American actress.
Park Shin-hye (b. 1990), South Korean actress.
Emily Ratajkowski (b. 1991), American model and actress.
Olandria Carthen (b. 1998), American television personality and model, mononymously known as "Olandria".
Emma Chamberlain (b. 2001), American influencer, YouTuber, podcaster, businesswoman and model.
Alex Consani (b. 2003), American model and social media personality.
Lily-Rose Depp (b. 1999), French-American actress and model.
Ayo Edebiri (b. 1995), American actress and comedian.
Julia Fox (b. 1990), Italian-American actress, artist, model, singer, and media personality. "I'm So Julia" became a slang term for being "everywhere", which in turn means being the "it girl".
Gabbriette (b. 1997), American model and musician.
Ivy Getty (b. 1994), American heiress and model.
Jennie singer, songwriter, model, actor, designer, and a ceo |Jennie]] (b. 1996), a member of South Korean girl group Blackpink and currently a solo artist. Jennie is called an it-girl for various reasons. Vogue states that Jennie is called the "Korea’s sell-out queen”—in a good way. Anything Jennie touches, wears, or holds will likely sell out instantly, no matter the price tag.</ref>-->