Only Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter has the power to make it feel like Christmas in April. Today, Queen Bey dropped her Netflix doc, Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce, which is a documentary based on her history-making Coachella performance and it has the internet in shambles.
The doc was written, produced, and directed by Beyonce and has us all wondering, is there anything this woman can't do?
Last year, Beychella (the only 'chella we acknowledge) was the family reunion we didn't know we needed, and now, thanks to the popular streaming service, we can get an inside look at what it took to make it happen. As the first black woman to headline Coachella, Beyonce has broken the glass ceiling with her patent leather stiletto boots and proven that there is true beauty in coming from a painful past.
If you no longer have your ex's Netflix password or just haven't had a chance to check it out yet, here's what you missed:
This Documentary Was Black AF
Beychella was the blackest thing that's ever happened to Indio, California and we are here for it. From her tribute to Caribbean culture and singing the Negro National Anthem, to engaging the audience in a crowd-wide swag surf, Beyonce showed love to black culture in a major way. Beyonce picked each dancer personally and said in the documentary that it was extremely important for her to give representation to people of color who have ever felt rejected based on how they look.
"My college was Destiny's Child. Instead of me pulling out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella. Creating something that will live beyond me — that will make people feel open and like they're watching magic, like they're living in a time that's super special, a day that they will never relive. That's what I want."
According to Beyonce, she always wanted to go to an HBCU but since her chaotic entertainment career started at such an early age, she was never given the opportunity. Centered on a fictional sorority, her two-weekend performance was her own version of Homecoming and celebrated historically black colleges and universities everywhere. Black excellence was truly epitomized. And there was so. Much. Swag. Bey said:
"I wanted a black orchestra. I wanted the steppers. I needed the vocalists. I wanted different characters. I didn't want us all doing the same thing. And the amount of swag is just limitless. Like, the things that these young people can do with their bodies and the music they can play, and the drum rolls, and the haircuts and the bodies and the … it's just not right. It's just so much damn swag."
Homecoming proves that we celebrate black history every damn day, we don't need a month.
Surprise! Issa album
www.beyonce.com
Although you can normally only catch Bey's latest drops on Jay-Z's streaming service, Tidal, in honor of Bey's new documentary, a surprise album just appeared on ALL platforms featuring a live performance tracks of all the songs at Beychella and a few extra (which adds up to 40) because she's lit like that.
If you haven't yet, make your way over to your streaming service of choice and check out Bey's New Orleans-infused version of Frankie Beverly's classic cookout hit, "Before I Let You Go".
It Was A Family Affair
The Carter kids made a few of their own cameos in Bey's new doc, including a scene where Blue Ivy joins her mom's rehearsal in true diva fashion. In the past, Bey and Jay have been very cautious about keeping their children out of the public eye; luckily, Homecoming was a rare, but adorable exception.
Along with Carter Royalty, we get to see Jay and Bey as crazy in love as they were in 2003 as well as the rest of Bey's tribe offer some major support on stage. It was Beyonce's goal to make every single person at the festival feel like family, and that chemistry definitely showed up on stage.
"If you know me, you know my family is the biggest priority is my life. My family is my sanctuary, my weakness, and my strength. They're my tribe, and it was important that we all felt like family."
Bey Opens Up About Difficult Pregnancy With Rumi & Sir
Beyonce makes being a mother of three, wife, and world-renowned superstar look easy, but after watching this documentary, you'll find that the reality is quite the contrary. Beyonce revealed that she was actually supposed to headline Coachella in 2017, but when she discovered her unexpected pregnancy with twins Sir and Rumi, she was forced to change her plans. In the documentary, she shared that her pregnancy with the twins was difficult and changed her body in ways she had never imagined.
Beyonce shared that she was 218 pounds when she gave birth, and there were several causes for panic in the delivery room. Along with developing preeclampsia and high blood pressure, there was a chance that one of the twins wouldn't survive:
"In the womb, one of my babies' hearts paused a few times so I had to get an emergency C-section."
Although Bey's Coachella performance was a major event that she's worked toward her entire life, she revealed that it is a marathon that she will never run again:
"What people don't see is the sacrifice. I definitely pushed myself further than I knew I could. And I learned a very valuable lesson. I will never, never push myself that far again."
…And Her Postpartum Journey Wasn’t Exactly A Walk In The Park Either
One thing I truly appreciate about Beyonce is her transparency and ability to keep it all the way 100, and in this doc, she's as real as they come. Queen Bey shared that after giving birth to the twins, she realized that her body would never be the same, and at first, that was a tough pill to swallow. In the days leading up to the history-making performance, the entertainer said:
"In order for me to meet my goals, I'm limiting myself to no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol … I'm hungry."
Sheesh, I feel you sis. Along with sacrificing time with her family and her kids, Beyonce shared that she also was forced to sacrifice some of her sanity. She explained:
"A lot of the choreography is not technical, it's about feeling. And that's hard when you don't feel like yourself. I had to rebuild my body from cut muscles. It took me awhile to feel confident enough to freak it and give it my own personality. In the beginning it was so many muscle spasms. Just, internally, my body was not connected. My body was not there. My mind wanted to be with my children. What people don't see is the sacrifice. I would dance and go off to the trailer and breastfeed the babies. And the days I could, I would bring the children."
Bey sacrificed a grueling eight months as a new mom for a performance that would go down in history. Although we've seen other biopics and documentaries about the side-effects of stardom, none have ever told a story of motherhood and self-discovery in the way that Homecoming has. Which brings me to my next point...
Beyonce Is The Boss We All Aspire To Be
Is it just me, or does watching Beyonce work make you want to make you work even harder? Queen Bey has proven time and time again that she's not bossy, she's the MF boss, and this fact is apparent all up and through this documentary.
Beyonce shared that she personally selected every element of her historical performance, and despite her postpartum fatigue, she powered through eight months of rigorous rehearsals to perfect a moment in time that she hopes will transcend generations.
"I respect things that take work. I respect things that are built from the ground up. I'm super specific about every detail. I personally selected each dancer, every light, the material on the steps, the height of the pyramid, the shape of the pyramid. Every patch was hand-sewn. Every tiny detail had an intention."
I once heard my pastor say that the harvest is not to be consumed by the tree, meaning that the fruits of your labor aren't only for you to enjoy. When you sew a seed, like Beyonce has by giving people of color a platform to display their beauty and talents on a worldwide platform, you can't help but flourish, sis. Bey said that it's her hope that her work inspires others to do the same.
"As a black woman, I used to feel like the world wanted me to stay in my little box. And black woman often feel underestimated. I wanted us to be proud of not only the show, but the process. Proud of the struggle. Thankful for the beauty that comes with a painful history and rejoice in the pain. Rejoice in the imperfections and the wrongs that are so damn right. I wanted everyone to feel thankful for their curves, their sass, their honesty – thankful for their freedom. It was no rules and we were able to create a free, safe space where none of us were marginalized."
In the words of the H-Town Queen herself:
"If my country ass can do it, they can do it."
Queen Bey is a true reminder that true success isn't just about personal gain, it's about putting others on, too.
Featured image by Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage
- 5 Takeaways From Beyoncé's HOMECOMING Documentary | Pitchfork ›
- 'Homecoming' Review: Beyonce's Netflix Documentary Raises The ... ›
- Beyoncé's 'Homecoming' Netflix Documentary: All the Highlights ... ›
- Beyoncé's 'Homecoming': 5 major moments, including preeclampsia ... ›
- Beyoncé's 'Homecoming' doc on Netflix is black excellence - CNN ›
- Beyoncé the Creator: 'Homecoming' Review - The New York Times ›
- Beyoncé's 'Homecoming': A Scholarly Coachella Documentary - The ... ›
- 'Homecoming' Documentary Comes With a Surprise: A Beyoncé ... ›
- Beyoncé Drops Live Coachella Album "Homecoming" After Netflix ... ›
- Stream Beyoncé's New 'Homecoming' Coachella Album, Netflix ... ›
RELATED
So, we handpicked one hundred It Girls who embody that palpable It Factor moving through us as young Black women, the kind of motion lighting up the world both IRL and across the internet.
It Girl 100 became xoNecole’s most successful program, with the hashtag organically reaching more than forty million impressions on Instagram in just twenty-four hours. Yes, it caught on like wildfire because we celebrated some of the most brilliant and influential GenZennial women of color setting trends and shaping culture. But more than that, it resonated because the women we celebrated felt seen.
Many were already known in their industries for keeping this generation fly and lit, but rarely received recognition or flowers. It Girl 100 became a safe space to be uplifted, and for us as Black women to bask in what felt like an era of our brilliance, beauty, and boundless influence on full display.
And then, almost overnight, it was as if the rug was pulled from under us as Black women, as the It Girls of the world.
Our much-needed, much-deserved season of ease and soft living quickly metamorphosed into a time of self-preservation and survival. Our motion and economic progression seemed strategically slowed, our light under siege.
The air feels heavier now. The headlines colder. Our Black girl magic is being picked apart and politicized for simply existing.
With that climate shift, as we prepare to launch our second annual It Girl 100 honoree list, our team has had to dig deep on the purpose and intention behind this year’s list. Knowing the spirit of It Girl 100 is about motion, sauce, strides, and progression, how do we celebrate amid uncertainty and collective grief when the juice feels like it is being squeezed out of us?
As we wrestled with that question, we were reminded that this tension isn’t new. Black women have always had to find joy in the midst of struggle, to create light even in the darkest corners. We have carried the weight of scrutiny for generations, expected to be strong, to serve, to smile through the sting. But this moment feels different. It feels deeply personal.
We are living at the intersection of liberation and backlash. We are learning to take off our capes, to say no when we are tired, to embrace softness without apology.
And somehow, the world has found new ways to punish us for it.
In lifestyle, women like Kayla Nicole and Ayesha Curry have been ridiculed for daring to choose themselves. Tracee Ellis Ross was labeled bitter for speaking her truth about love. Meghan Markle, still, cannot breathe without critique.
In politics, Kamala Harris, Letitia James, and Jasmine Crockett are dragged through the mud for standing tall in rooms not built for them.
In sports, Angel Reese, Coco Gauff, and Taylor Townsend have been reminded that even excellence will not shield you from racism or judgment.
In business, visionaries like Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye and Melissa Butler are fighting to keep their dreams alive in an economy that too often forgets us first.
Even our icons, Beyoncé, Serena, and SZA, have faced criticism simply for evolving beyond the boxes society tried to keep them in.
From everyday women to cultural phenoms, the pattern is the same. Our light is being tested.
And yet, somehow, through it all, we are still showing up as that girl, and that deserves to be celebrated.
Because while the world debates our worth, we keep raising our value. And that proof is all around us.
This year alone, Naomi Osaka returned from motherhood and mental health challenges to reach the semifinals of the US Open. A’ja Wilson claimed another MVP, reminding us that beauty and dominance can coexist. Brandy and Monica are snatching our edges on tour. Kahlana Barfield Brown sold out her new line in the face of a retailer that had been canceled. And Melissa Butler’s company, The Lip Bar, is projecting a forty percent surge in sales.
We are no longer defining strength by how much pain we can endure. We are defining it by the unbreakable light we continue to radiate.
We are the women walking our daily steps and also continuing to run solid businesses. We are growing in love, taking solo trips, laughing until it hurts, raising babies and ideas, drinking our green juice, and praying our peace back into existence.
We are rediscovering the joy of rest and realizing that softness is not weakness, it is strategy.
And through it all, we continue to lift one another. Emma Grede is creating seats at the table. Valeisha Butterfield has started a fund for jobless Black women. Arian Simone is leading in media with fearless conviction. We are pouring into each other in ways the world rarely sees but always feels.
So yes, we are in the midst of societal warfare. Yes, we are being tested. Yes, we are facing economic strain, political targeting, and public scrutiny. But even war cannot dim a light that is divinely ours.
And we are still shining.
And we are still softening.
And we are still creating.
And we are still It.
That is the quiet magic of Black womanhood, our ability to hold both truth and triumph in the same breath, to say yes, and to life’s contradictions.
It is no coincidence that this year, as SheaMoisture embraces the message “Yes, And,” they stand beside us as partners in celebrating this class of It Girls. Because that phrase, those two simple words, capture the very essence of this moment.
Yes, we are tired. And we are still rising.
Yes, we are questioned. And we are the answer.
Yes, we are bruised. And we are still beautiful.
This year’s It Girl 100 is more than a list. It is a love letter to every Black woman who dares to live out loud in a world that would rather she whisper. This year’s class is living proof of “Yes, And,” women who are finding ways to thrive and to heal, to build and to rest, to lead and to love, all at once.
It is proof that our joy is not naive, our success not accidental. It is the reminder that our light has never needed permission.
So without further ado, we celebrate the It Girl 100 Class of 2025–2026.
We celebrate the millions of us who keep doing it with grace, grit, and glory.
Because despite it all, we still shine.
Because we are still her.
Because we are still IT, girl.
Meet all 100 women shaping culture in the It Girl 100 Class of 2025. View the complete list of honorees here.
Featured image by xoStaff
Despite launching media careers from different pathways, the two New York-based women have forged a friendship where they can discuss their ambitions and challenges.
Both women are part of xoNecole’s It Girl 100 Class of 2025, recognized in the Viral Voices category for the impact they’ve made through storytelling, creativity, and authenticity. Together, they represent what it means to build an "It Girl" brand with integrity and depth. In the spirit of SheaMoisture’s "Yes, And" ethos, Les and Kayla embody the freedom to be multi-layered as women evolving boldly into every version of themselves.
This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity
On Forging Their Own Paths
Les Alfred: Being a Jane of all trades is incredibly challenging. And one of the challenges I've faced is that the scope of what podcasters now need to do has increased so much. When I first interviewed you in 2019, I was still very new at it, but I remember being on a Skype call with you from my bedroom in Seattle. That was how I ran the show. And that was good enough. That is absolutely not good enough these days. The scope and the quality keeps increasing, but the resources that you have don't necessarily increase in order to remain competitive.
I get asked so many questions from people who want to get into podcasts and they want to get started. Most of the time, I'm just like, 'I don't have tips for you.' Because, one, I don't know what it's like to start in this current environment. Two, I know what it takes to contend and be consistent in this environment. The barrier of entry is a lot higher in terms of having something of quality than it was before.
On Balancing Ambition and Rest
Kayla Greaves: I've had to make a very clear effort to slow down and just not take on as much. Yes, you're running a business, but you're also living your life. I had one of those days yesterday. I just laid down and listened to white noise for hours because I just needed my brain to just be clear. I called a friend. I cried.
I'm starting over again today. The sun is out. It's a new day. And that's just sometimes what you have to do. You can't show up for your audience or for other people, if you can't show for yourself. I think that creativity comes from a place of living your life and having genuine experiences, and then sharing those experiences through your art.
"I had to give myself permission to let myself grow publicly in ways that I'd already done personally."
Courtesy
On Evolving Through Growth and Rebranding
Les: I didn't create Balanced Black Girl until 2018, but I started blogging and creating content and doing things under the Balanced brand in 2014. I was 24 years old at the time. Now, I'm 36. The things that were important to me, the perspective that I had and the stories I wanted to tell were entirely different. I think I had to give myself permission to let myself grow publicly in ways that I'd already done personally. The show isn't really about wellness anymore. And that shift started happening a couple of years ago.
When we started expanding into more lifestyle topics, more self-help topics [and] talking about entrepreneurship, the audience responded really well. That was when the show really started to grow and take off. And that was what got so much more engagement than the episodes back in 2020 when I was doing hour-long deep dives on gut health.
Rebranding the show was something I've been thinking about for a long time. When I was finally like, 'Oh, I need to do this,' honestly, was the 2024 presidential election. I was like, these people are about to be in here acting crazy. I do not feel safe with my business name being what it is. I don't want to be targeted for any BS. We saw what they did to the Fearless Fund.
"You have to balance your integrity with your income."
Courtesy
On Integrity Over Income
Kayla: I have many other interests aside from beauty. I'm growing and I'm changing as a person. I'm not the same person I was when I started at InStyle in 2019 before the pandemic rocked everybody's world. I don't think reviewing every single lipstick that comes out is exciting or interesting, because everybody does it now, and everybody feels like they're qualified to speak on things that they're not qualified to speak on. I'm currently in that pain point of growth.
I don't think I have always been in environments where I've been encouraged to branch out on my own ideas. I finished Ina Garten’s memoir maybe a month ago. She kept repeating this quote in her book. She said, ‘What goes in early, goes in deep.’ Now that I'm on my own and I don't have the resources of a traditional media company, which is what I have become accustomed to, sometimes it's difficult for me to be like, 'Okay, just go ahead with the thing.'
I think, Les, just the other day, you reposted somebody saying that they let go of a five-figure deal and then got double the next day because it just didn't feel aligned for them. Those are the things that happen. I have to find a balance of, 'Okay, how do I keep myself afloat?' And that may mean I may not be balling out of control just yet, but I'm okay for now. I can buy myself nice things every once in a while, but you have to balance your integrity with your income.
Les: There are just certain lines that I'm not willing to cross. Especially when I created more wellness content, one of those lines was I will not promote any sort of weight loss product. All of these GLP-1s all want to advertise on my podcast. I actually have nothing against those types of products, but I don't ever want someone to look at what I'm putting into the world and think that I'm saying that they need to feel a certain way about their bodies.
Even if the money is great, that's not for me to say, and that's not the type of message that I want to put out here. Or, I had another kind of brand deal come through that would have required me to divulge things about my personal life that I just don't really want my audience knowing about me, and bringing them along on journeys that I just find personal and I want to keep offline. I don’t want to be known for dragging my mess all over the internet for a buck.
I don't want to be known for being an influencer. I would love to be 1,000% in on my podcast, scale it, have it grow to be a media empire where I'm producing and putting out other bodies of work. For now, until that other side of the business really picks up and gets to the point where I want it to be, I kind of need to play the influencer game a little bit to live in this expensive city. But I'm gonna do it on my terms. It's a constant compromise that I'm coming to with myself.
"You can never make a big vision come to fruition if you're sitting and you're waiting for somebody else to tell you exactly what to do."
Courtesy
On Mutual Admiration and Friendship
Les: Something that I really admire about you in having known you for the past couple of years is you don't wait for a roadmap. You jump in, you roll up your sleeves, and you do it. You can never make a big vision come to fruition if you're sitting and you're waiting for somebody else to tell you exactly what to do.
Kayla: Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for saying that, because that means so much to me, and it's very affirming. That's exactly how I feel about you. I remember, even at your first live show, you're like, ‘Oh my god, I'm so stressed. I don't know what I'm doing.’ And, the shit sold out. And, you know, and now, like, you see the growth of the podcast. And you have nearly 61,000 subscribers on YouTube. I just checked recently.
I talk a lot about people that really just need to not say anything on the internet, because it's so frustrating as somebody who grew up as a traditional journalist. You want people to fact check and ask thoughtful questions and have good conversations. I've never said that about you. I've always loved your podcast. And I've sent a lot of your episodes to friends when they're going through specific things that you're talking about.
This season has been a little bit slower to me, so you've been a constant source of inspiration, and it's just been such a pleasure to see your podcast grow despite the challenges you've had. I know it's not easy, but you continue to grow and continue to push through, and I really admire that as somebody who sat and cried yesterday and listened to white noise.
And this is why I tell you all the time, you really do inspire me. I love you a lot.
Les: Oh my gosh, I love you a lot. I'm so glad that the podcast brought us together.
Tap into the full It Girl 100 Class of 2025 and meet all the women changing game this year and beyond. See the full list here.
Featured image courtesy