How to be an It Girl 

What, like it’s hard? 

Everyone glamorous is pretending. For sure. It’s easy to look good if everyone wants you to: when the designer fits the dress to you, when somebody is paid to make sure your shoes match your look, when the photographs of you will sell, then it becomes an industry to get you looking inhumanly good. Even an awareness of how glamour is created doesn’t help: Charli XCX attending red-carpet events in her neon face tape and no-crease hairclips designed for mid-style not finished look is a statement; you in the same thing, going to work or Tesco, look unfinished, like you left the house with curlers in. For most of us, glamour is something we don’t typically get to practice… but that doesn’t mean a mere mortal cannot wrangle with It-ness and find fulfilment. 

An It Girl is a charged and changing concept. When I was young, ‘It’ was grimier: your makeup was just as heavy, but might be creased or smeared, you were supposed to be kooky (which would probably now read as ‘cringe’), you were probably at least a bit of a loner. Now the hot people have friends and neat, clean everything. I don’t use social media so I don’t know what the jet set have in common beyond that, but I do know that it’s something designed not to appeal to me, to rebel against the sensibilities I cultivated in my youth. Glamour for the mass-market now is control, whether over your wrinkles or your planner, and it revels in a chic sense of self. Compared to the emo era with its glamorous indie rock & roll, where everyone but Alexa Chung was out of control and even she had loose, natural hair and smudgy makeup and it’s difficult to see commonalities between the Its and the not-its of different generations [1] – difficult, but not impossible. 

Glamour is hard and expensive, no matter the era you live in – did I seriously used to paint my nails every two days? What grotesque effort, yet the only alternative would be to pay for gels or acrylics or develop a noticeable chip in the polish every two days, or to disregard nail polish as unimportant. Taking pics for insta takes as much time and preparation as being in the society pages of the paper, and both probably cost more than they yield for most of an It Girl’s career.  

The secret knowledge of glamour has come with age. In my 30s, I have a different conception of It: no longer for me defined by mass opinion and proclamation from an influential circle that this is, indeed, It; instead I think It is about being hot in the circles you move in. The well-dressed women at my library are It Girls, the woman at work whose presence at the post-office drinks drags people out has It, and the novelist everyone (in a certain subgroup) is talking about has created It. I recognise the It-factor is available in multiple subcultures or dimensions, and the truly glorious thing about being so petty and myopic as to care about your own aesthetic within this conception of It is that it is marvellous for imposter syndrome: when your only aim is to look like the platonic form of you, it’s easy to remind yourself of everything you want to be, all of the aspects of your own personality that you’re proud of, all the weird knowledge unique to your interests. Damn, you thought my interest in old movies was something to make fun of? Not on Letterboxd it’s not. Oh, you thought I was too intelligent for my own good? I hope you see me reading academic interpretations of pop stars. You thought I was a loner, or shallow? The truth my circle is exclusive, bitches know they can’t catch me. It is this assertion of confidence that, in my view, makes It, more than anything else. I am X, my selfhood is self-contained, and I’m more interesting than you ever were. 

Essential ingredients for being ‘It’: 

• A hobby or subculture. When you whip out a Japanese notebook and a fountain pen like you’re in a Wes Anderson film or live the bimbo lifestyle by ensuring everything you own is metallic and pink, you’re demonstrating you’re au fait with social rules and consciously choose which ones to abide by or discard. You should begin by understanding the language of self-presentation and understanding the uncompromisable Self of It-hood.  
• A signature. Even if you love to switch it up each day, try to embody one element of your most-you presentation; when time or energy fails and you put all of those ‘most you’ elements together, you aren’t succumbing to lowest-common-denominator and fading into the background – instead, you’re at your most powerful, and people will recognise you even if you’re not seeing yourself. 
• Lead don’t follow. The surest way to this, in my mind, is to decide what you think is right, what you wouldn’t compromise on, and then not give a fuck about people who disagree. Whether everybody or nobody is looking at you, don’t change your actions – this is not a performance, it’s an opinion. 
• Have fun. Whether it’s fun with your fashion, dedication to a reading niche that brings you joy, or sleazy nights out à la It Girls of history, fun is the power behind It-hood. Pay attention to what brings you joy, live in the moment of It. 
• Allow It to seep into everything you value. Whether it’s high fashion in low places, seeing and recording poetry in all things, or being the person who brings the party to a dreary Saturday when you’re required at work, to be It you must be known as It, even outside the circles of people interested in It. 

You should try It, or try to be It, or try to find how It matters to you. Be your own It Girl. 

To get this article, and others, as physical media, subscribe now. 

[1] excepting Charli XCX, who is technically an It Girl of both eras. This is actually a point I’m going to make in my PhD, I think, so bear with me whilst I flesh it out academically. 

On This Topic: 

• Always and forever YMRT, but somebody who werked it that we can learn from is Kay Francis so let’s recommend her episode. 
• Techo and bujo culture will get us all in our own ways. Sincerely, I now can’t imagine owning a notebook that isn’t a Midori MD. 
• I can’t reference Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll without reminding everyone Mr Brightside is the longest-charting song ever in Britain and the new Killers work is their best yet. Go and listen. 

To-Do: 

• Listen to an album that sounds good to somebody that wasn’t a teenager when I was. But also be grateful those P!ATD demos you got off a friend who used Limewire in the 00s are accessible officially now. 
• Finish CI talk. Self-promo: see me talk about Eric Hobsbawm, Taylor Swift and my place in the Plath fan community at Creative Industries festival in February. 
• Finish Rukeyser lecture. 

Today’s Culture: 

• It’s been 20 years since I started really paying attention to pop music, apparently, and because everything needs an anniversary now I’m feeling very old as the ‘celebrations’ (ie legacy vinyl repressings to get money from the same people who paid you already) begin. I am largely not susceptible to these, but bonus tracks on CD are my kryptonite so if record labels could stay focussed on vinyl that would help me. 
• I’m on a buying freeze. Pokémon x Natural History Museum done got me, but nothing else will 🙅‍♀️ That £138 HMV basket is STAYING PUT, and I will tie a charm I ALREADY OWN onto my journal’s ribbon bookmark. 
• Found a YouTube channel that is more matcha obsessed than I am. Tezumi has already reminded me of my love for tea done properly, and I now have a backlog of videos to expand my knowledge.