It girl

For the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar, see The It Girl.

An It girl is a charming, sexy young woman, or one who has just broken into mainstream cinema and attends parties all the time. The reign of an "It girl" is usually temporary; some of the rising it girls will either become a fully-fledged celebrity or her popularity will fade. The term "it boy", much less frequently used, is the male equivalent.

Clara Bow and It (1927)

The term was coined by English romance novelist and screenwriter Elinor Glyn to describe actress Clara Bow when she appeared with success in the Hollywood silent film It in 1927. Based on Glyn's novella of the same title, the movie was planned as a special showcase for the popular Paramount Studios star. Owing to Glyn's widely publicized pronouncement, the term it, a euphemism for sex-appeal, not only catapulted Bow to fame but became a catch phrase, eventually entering the cultural lexicon. Bow's contemporary and friend, the actress Louise Brooks, who popularised the bobbed hairstyle of the 1920s, was also widely described as an "It girl", especially retrospectively.

Bow's film was turned into a musical called The It Girl in 2001, which opened at the York Theatre Company off-Broadway starring Jean Louisa Kelly.

Modern "It girls"

Since 1927 the term has been extended beyond the world of film, referring to whoever in society, fashion or the performing arts was in vogue at the time, including, from the 1960s onwards, singer and Rolling Stones' muse Marianne Faithfull, Talitha Getty, model Jean Shrimpton, actress and socialite Edie Sedgwick, actress and comedienne Goldie Hawn, 1980s "wild child" Amanda de Cadenet, model Kate Moss, socialite/actress Paris Hilton, actress Tara Reid, pop-icon Britney Spears, actress from The O.C. Mischa Barton,actress and socialite Nicole Richie, actress and "boho"-queen Sienna Miller, famous fashionable twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, actress Lindsay Lohan, and socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

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" (Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics, 2002). At around the same time the term posh tart was coined as a broad equivalent, though this tended to be reserved for those, such as Palmer-Tomkinson and Lady Victoria Hervey, daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, who came from the "higher" echelons of society.

In the 2000s the phrase generally refers to a modified version of the Donaldson quote in Brewer's, which, arguably, could currently probably be more accurately restated as, "An It girl is a young woman of noticeable 'sex appeal' with rich parents, who occupies herself by shoe- and fashion-shopping and party-going, with accompanying media attention, as they attend events at well known celebrity night-spots, get arrested, and spend time in rehab."

External links

• Clara Bow, the original It girl