What it means
An it girl is the young woman of the moment, effortlessly stylish and magnetic, the one everybody watches and quietly wants to be. She sets the trends rather than chasing them and makes the whole thing look completely unbothered.
Usage examples
"She walked in late with the sunglasses still on, total it girl energy."
"Every campus has an it girl whose coffee order quietly becomes everyone else's."
"She's not even trying that hard and somehow the whole party starts dressing off her vibe. Proper it girl stuff."
"By week three, her tote bag, her trainers, even her little hair clip were everywhere. She'd gone full it girl on campus."
Where it comes from
It comes from the noun it, meaning that hard-to-pin-down sex appeal or magnetism. The phrase blew up in the 1920s after Clara Bow was marketed as the It Girl around the film It. Since then, English has kept using it for the woman everyone suddenly clocks as the one right now.
This expression also appears in
