it girl

An It girl is a young woman everyone seems to be watching: stylish, magnetic and somehow always at the center of what’s cool right now. Merriam-Webster defines it as a woman or girl of superlative social appeal and influence.

What it means

Being an It girl isn’t only about looks. It’s about a kind of pull: people copy her style, want to know where she goes and what she buys, and she seems to set trends without trying. Every era has its own. Today the term is all over fashion and celebrity media.

Examples

• “Every brand wants her in their campaign. She’s the It girl of the moment.”
• “Ballet flats, slicked bun, tiny bag. Full It girl uniform.”
• “She was the It girl of our high school and she knew it.”

Where it came from: Clara Bow and “It”

The phrase is nearly a century old. Novelist Elinor Glyn popularized “It” as a word for a mysterious magnetic quality that draws everyone toward a person. Her story became the 1927 Paramount film It, starring Clara Bow, and Bow was known as “the It girl” from then on. Merriam-Webster dates “It girl” to that year. The film was later added to the US National Film Registry, in 2001.

Earlier writers had already used “It” this way; Wikipedia points to a Rudyard Kipling story from 1904. Later It girls included Edie Sedgwick in the 1960s and, in Britain, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in the 1990s, when the term was also used for socialites famous for partying.

It girl vs. baddie vs. main character

• It girl: the woman setting the trends that everyone else follows.
• Baddie: a confident, glamorous woman with a bold look.
• Main character: acting like the star of your own life, whether or not anyone else is watching.

Related terms

• baddie: a confident, glamorous woman
• clean girl aesthetic: a polished, minimal look
• old money aesthetic: quiet, inherited-wealth style
• slay: to do something brilliantly
• aura: cool factor

See more terms like this in our Gen Z slang dictionary.