Where have all the It girls gone?

MANILA, Philippines - The suggestion to write about Manila’s current crop of It girls came from one of my editors.  “I don’t even know who they are these days,” I responded, “I’ve been so out of it.” My mind drew one blank after another and I chalked up my cluelessness to blissful, self-imposed ignorance. I opened this dialogue with my peers and reached the conclusion that there aren’t actually any It girls now.

Not that this particular epiphany was unexpected, but it did make me feel sad for our city. I came of age during the apogee of Celine and Wendy, that glorious era when a person’s myth was very palpable. That period equipped me with a firm understanding of It-ness and, when need be, I can sniff It out even now. Currently, my senses detect nothing.

Anyone who gets It can tell you that there is no absolute formula or all-encompassing definition for the je ne sais quoi that separates The Girl(s) from the pack. Manila’s It girl of yore was buoyed and ballyhooed by her mere existence. Presently, Manila’s commercially successful girls do not greatly deviate from the others.  All we get now is an amalgam of derivative and consumer-dictated glam.

The Internet killed Manila’s It girl. Filipinos are a very emotional people; we like to express intense ownership over our causes célèbres. The most impassioned of spectators can get very personal and vindictive, as if they were close to the persons of their desire or derision. Can you recall that day everyone suddenly had a voice on the World Wide Web, when vitriolic rumors exploded on public forums and witch hunts were encouraged by embittered bloggers? The backlash caught the It girls of the aughts unawares and heralded the changing landscape. There was no more mystery, romance or awe. Lives were happening all over the net in real time, as they continue to today.

The present-day mirage of female It-ness is nothing but a shrewd industrial complex. My best friend Xtina and I joke that anyone with enough determination and a high-speed connection could fashion herself to appear as an It girl these days. Still, an #OOTD post with thousands of likes on Instagram doth not an It girl make.

The stopgaps that have filled the void left by the It girls play it safe, lacking the devil-may-care impunity of the real deal. They know that there is money to be made since people are watching. Self-policing is part and parcel of self-publishing one’s thoughts and images on social media platforms. 

Tech-savvy and cognizant of the public’s eye, which is literally a panopticon of online fans, the most visible girls today are responsible and accountable marketing virtuosos. Acts are all too contrived and seem almost algorithmic, making for a clear and seamless bigger picture that screams, “I’m pretty!” but lacking in singularity. Popularity is no longer dictated by human emotion now that everything is measured in cold, hard metrics.

The separation between society and celebrity has ceased to exist. Artistas imbibe and emulate sosyal It-ness as a means to an end, and there are model-slash-actress-slash-whatevers who are to the manor born but choose to bankroll on television appearances and product endorsements. Nowadays, we easily can identify the reasons why this or that female figure is garnering attention. Looks, business acumen, real talent can all be found. Nevertheless, It remains absent. In some cases, It was there, only to disappear when a girl becomes increasingly mainstream.

A perfect case study of an It girl gone mass market is the former socialite known as Paris Hilton. The moment she cashed in on exposing herself to anyone who cared enough to watch, pun much intended, the magic was gone. A personality loses allure once she evolves into a packaged product. This process is only natural. It girls have a shelf life before they metamorphose into the next version of themselves, be it a permutation of an entrepreneur or the various married-with-kids types.

So why are there no It girls in our city? Does It-ness skip a generation like a recessive gene? When will this pandemic of blandness end? Where have all the It girls gone? Obviously, they’re not in Manila, or at least they aren’t into being seen here.

The social environment of our locale is also to blame. I can think of a few Filipina girls who have It, but they are either staying under the radar or spreading their chic overseas. There’s Betina Ocampo, the 25-year-old luxury T-shirt designer who’s stocked at Barneys and splits her time between New York, Manila and wherever work takes her. She keeps a relatively low profile when she’s in town. “I spend all my downtime in New York,” she explains, “I’ve been (to Privé) once in my entire life and only for five minutes.” 

My fellow writer, Anna Canlas, opined “We shouldn’t be looking for It girls in Manila society because that’s not what’s out there.” Perhaps they choose to live privately and belong to themselves these days, either waiting for the prime opportunity to make their presence felt or are purposely avoiding the media. Maybe they don’t give a shit? Yeah, that could be It.