She’s got influence but isn’t an influencer. She never looks a mess, yet seems to put in minimal
effort. She is a model, DJ and student all at the same time. She has ‘it’, but what is ‘it’? She’s an ‘it
girl’. Arguably one of the highest complements one can achieve, but what does it take to achieve ‘it-
girl’ status? The age-old term has been used to describe women since the early 20 th century, but as
time progresses, what dies it mean to be considered an ‘it-girl’? The Wikipedia definition suggests
she’s an attractive young woman who is perceived to have both sex appeal and an engaging
personality. But, there’s no doubt it takes more than this to be considered an ‘it-girl’. According to
Patrick McMullan, a nightlife photographer in the New York scene, ‘she is someone everyone is
drawn to- someone people want to gossip about’. Men want to date her, and women want to be
her.
In the new-age of social media and influencers, the lines have become somewhat blurry in defining
who makes the cut as an ‘it girl’. With so many people boasting hundreds of thousands of followers,
it seems everywhere you look there is a new and emerging it-girl, but it really isn’t that simple. It-
girls need to have something different about them, a certain level of obscurity that sets them apart
from the rest of the crowd. In the words of actress Hari Nef, it-girl-ness is an “ineffable quality”, you
either have it or you don’t. Some qualities remain true for it-girls across time, she’s attractive, but
not deemed to be overly sexual. She’s a presenter, a DJ, a model, a muse and a moment. She always
seems to be following her passion as a career, for example in art galleries or fashion design. It’s rare
that an it-girl would be a teacher or a nurse. Although there are undeniable problems with this fact,
there’s a simple explanation. She is who everyone wishes they could be, people look up to her and
idolise her. She has what everyone wants, yet few manage to achieve.
There is some idea around the fact that the phenomenon of the it girl is dying out. In the age of
social media and influencers, can a Bona-fide it-girl really exist? People are constantly marketing
themselves to an audience online, and brands have now began using the term it-girl as a form of
promotion. Biz Sherbert, co-host of Nymphet Alumni, a podcast unpacking social trends, argues that
the term has largely lost its meaning. “It’s often just a more tasteful or cooler way of labelling
someone as an influencer” she says, “I don’t think the concept of a traditional it-girl applies in the
same way in today’s climate. To be truly ‘it’, you must have some sort of outside-of-self-produced
phenomena, like paparazzi pictures captured at an exclusive party. But we lost much of that mystery
when images are self-manufactured and distributed on our own curated profiles”. Although this
statement is true, it cannot be denied that there are ‘it-girls’ in 2024, with people such as Lily Chee
and Addison Rae coming to mind. Lily, a NYC based model and student at the prestigious Colombia
University has amassed a large social media following through her posts documenting her life.
Likewise, Addison Rae, who started off as a TikTok influencer but has now released hit music and is
surrounding herself with the likes of Charli XCX and the Kardashians. Although the it-girl of today
may look slightly different to what she looked like twenty or thirty years ago, there is no doubt that
she still exists.