- It girl
An It girl or It-girl is a charming,
sexy young woman who receives intense media coverage unrelated or disproportional to personal achievements. The reign of an "It girl" is usually temporary; some of the rising It girls will either become fully-fledged celebrities or their 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 actressClara Bow as she appeared in the 1927 Hollywood silent film "It". Glyn described the term thus::"IT" is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With "IT" you win all men if you are a woman—all women if you are a man. "IT" can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction."Slate from the movie "It" (USA, 1927)] and:"Self-confidence and indifference whether you are pleasing or not—and something in you that gives the impression that you are not at all cold. That's "IT"."However, the movie also 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 afemme fatale , with a touch of "material girl". By contrast, her rival is equally young and comely, and even rich, blonde and well-bred to boot, but she simply hasn't got "it".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 girl" entered the cultural lexicon. Bow's contemporary and friend, the actress
Louise Brooks was also widely described as an "It girl", especially retrospectively.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, and eventually extending beyond young female performing artists to mere "media celebrities".
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]Musical
Glyn's movie script was adapted into a musical called "The It Girl", which opened off-Broadway in 2001 at the York Theatre Company starring
Jean Louisa Kelly [http://www.ItGirlMusical.com It Girl Musical] ] .External links
* [http://www.bintmagazine.com/bint_stories/920.php?story_id=145 Clara Bow] , the original It girl
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
