The Original It Girl's Dark Secret Behind Hollywood Glamour

What makes someone an 'It Girl'? The formula seems simple yet elusive: youth paired with an indefinable charm, intelligence mixed with mystery, and a style that's both polished and uniquely personal. This coveted status has been claimed by countless women over the past century, but the crown always seems to slip away. The entire phenomenon traces back to one young woman who captured America's imagination during the roaring twenties.

A Troubled Beginning in Brooklyn

Clara Bow entered the world on July 29, 1905, in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood under the shadow of tragedy. Her two older sisters had died as babies in 1903 and 1904, and doctors had warned her mother, Sara Frances Bow, against attempting another pregnancy. "I don't suppose two people ever looked death in the face more clearly than my mother and I the morning I was born," Bow later told Photoplay magazine in 1928. "We were both given up, but somehow we struggled back to life… She idolized me, but with a strange, bitter love, almost as though she was afraid to love me for fear I, too, would be snatched away from her."

From an early age, Clara became her mother's caretaker. Sara suffered from epilepsy and episodes of mental illness following a severe head injury from falling out of a second-story window. Though Clara described her mother as "mean," she understood "she couldn't help it." This reversed parent-child relationship would shape Clara's entire worldview.

The Spark of Divine Fire

Clara's path to stardom began with a magazine contest seeking "ability, personality, grace and beauty." Armed with a dollar from her father for headshots, she entered despite her own doubts and insecurities. After five screen tests, the judges declared she possessed "a genuine spark of divine fire." Her passion for movies had been building for years. "I'd save and save and beg Dad for a little money, and every cent of it went into the box office of a motion picture theater," she wrote. "For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world."

When Clara shared her Hollywood dreams with her mother, the response was chilling: "You are going straight to hell. I would rather see you dead." One night, Clara woke to find her mother holding a knife to her throat. After fighting her off, Clara locked her mother away. Sara had no memory of the incident the next morning and was soon committed to an institution, where she died of epilepsy in 1923 at age 43.

Rise to Stardom

Clara's first film role in 1921's "Beyond the Rainbow" ended up entirely on the cutting room floor, but she persevered. Her tomboyish charm landed her a part in 1922's "Down to the Sea in Ships," followed by an uncredited dance sequence in "Enemies of Women." "I'd go home at night and help take care of mother; I'd cry my eyes out when I left her in the morning – and then go and dance on a table," she remembered. "I think I used to be half-hysterical, but the director thought it was wonderful."

Moving to Hollywood in 1923, Clara embodied the "flapper girl" persona that defined the decade. By 1925, she appeared in 14 films, often working on multiple projects simultaneously. Her appeal lay in her ability to challenge gender norms while maintaining her feminine confidence. In 1927, she starred in "It," the film that would cement her legacy. Based on Elinor Glyn's novel, the movie followed a shop girl who wins her boss's heart through sheer charisma.

The Price of Fame

The term "It Girl" existed in British society, but Glyn's definition gave it new meaning: "That quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force." Clara became the living embodiment of this concept, though she remained an outsider among Hollywood's elite. "I'm a curiosity in Hollywood," she declared. "I'm a big freak, because I'm myself!"

As the film industry transitioned to sound in the late 1920s, Clara adapted successfully, but the pressures began taking their toll. By 1931, at just 25, her mental health deteriorated, leading to hospitalization and the end of her Paramount contract. Though she made a brief comeback with two successful films in 1932 and 1933, she retired from acting that same year to focus on her family with husband Rex Bell.

Clara's later years were marked by continued mental health struggles. In 1944, she attempted suicide and was later diagnosed with schizophrenia. She rejected psychological treatment and lived as a recluse until her death from a heart attack in 1965 at age 60. Her own words captured the essence of her generation's paradox: "All the time the flapper is laughing and dancing, there's a feeling of tragedy underneath, she's unhappy and disillusioned, and that's what people sense."