A study of the ‘it’ girl
What really is an it girl? And how do we determine one? It seems that throughout the history of popular culture, there have been multiple ‘it girls’ of the moment. Each either passing through into a legendary status or into a self-enforced relative obscurity.
‘It girl’ originated first at the turn of the 20th century, gaining its increasing popularity from the success of the 1927 film ‘It’, starring Clara Bow as the proclaimed ‘It girl’. Within this film it seemed that Bow’s character just had ‘it’, but what is ‘it’? Maybe money, the clothes or even just natural visual beauty. Henceforth, ‘it’ became the word to describe anyone or anything that was happening within the pop culture scene.
We have seen many ‘it's’ within our time: Edie, Twiggy, Bianca, Grace, Kate, Chloe, Alexa and even most recently Julia and Gabriette. With every proclamation of a new ‘it’ girl on the scene, it seems that these girls become immortalised into somewhat of a legend. Precisely at that moment, they are not human anymore, they are entities and muses to the masses. They become THE inspiration of that moment, their style is copied in every high street store, their haircut is given names at salons, anything they do, say or eat is intensely scrutinised yet also glorified within the media. There is no escape from what they’ve now become to the world; even when they haven’t necessarily asked to become it.
Yet we have also seen throughout history ‘its’ proclaiming and embracing this unwanted title bestowed upon them. The ‘its’ are effortless in everything they complete, they never show a want of trying; they take this title and never acknowledge its status or even existence. They have their fingers in many creative pies whilst leading a nomadic lifestyle. An ‘it’ follows no fashion trends, they find most of their clothing through small town antique shops and dead lady estate sales. Every designer wants to dress them, yet few get the privilege. They appear at every ‘happening’ event, actually their appearance, even for a few seconds, makes the event ‘happening’. One second they smoke excessively, drink unduly and have multiple romantic entanglements; then promote an organic, spiritual health well being retreat the next. Their Instagram are visual snapshots of their effortless lives, allowing you to peek through the keyhole ever so slightly; yet also keeping most of their personal lives private. A mysterious enigma, they play up to their name of ‘it’ and yet this makes them more elusive, more desirable and most importantly- more of the moment.
I guess this then poses a question to us as a society. Why do we feel the need to have ‘it’ girls? To constantly obsess over someone and to create this parasocial relationship is clearly not healthy. Yet it's what pop culture thrives off of, we always need someone or something to idolise otherwise we would be lost. People need that constant gratification that there are other beings prettier, cooler, and show more sex appeal so effortlessly more than themselves. The common man needs idols, to get through their everyday lives; yet to also provide them with a glimmer of hope, that they can one day achieve a smidge of what this ‘it’ girl has achieved.
Maybe though the ‘it’ girl is so adored and admired because we want ‘it’. All of us have had glimmers of being an ‘it’ in one way or another. A compliment at a bar, strangers asking you where your top is from, being told your style or music taste is cool. These pockets of compliments and slight admiration are addicting. We experience glimmers of this admiration that ‘its’ have constantly. We adore it because we are addicted to it, addicted to the idea of being wanted in a world that is already set up against you from birth.
Whilst the 2020s may be changing the popular cultural landscape dramatically, I believe we will always want and need ‘it’ girls. This need will just change and form into something new. A modern ‘it’ girl won’t be found by a model scout or come from an aristocratic family. They most likely will be someone who reached peak levels of internet fame, and then retreated themselves into elusive obscurity. A contrast of originally sharing so much online and then slowly petering off to share nothing at all. They may check in with their followers once a month, but their content will be reduced in substance. We want them more and they need us less, it becomes addicting for the subscriber, thus the modern ‘it’ girl is born.