As we enter a new year and our timelines become flooded with messages of "ease," "new year, new me," "ins and outs," and "resolutions," reinvention, specifically how to reinvent yourself, is another frequently discussed topic during this time of year. While I am all for self-improvement and define myself as a personal development girlie (shout-out to my Virgo Moon), I also must admit that being inundated with the cornucopia of self-development content that is at its peak during this time of year can feel a little overwhelming, even to me.
The desire to transform and start fresh that often comes with the beginning of the new year and the subsequent shedding of old skin can also have you questioning where exactly to begin in your attempts to reinvent yourself. According to Dr. Kim Foster, M.D., the journey to reinvention and changing your life starts with the very foundational shift of changing your identity.
"The secret to true transformation isn’t in setting more goals or working harder or even changing your environment. Those things can help, but they are not the core of what actually drives change. The real key is your identity. It’s who you believe you are at your core," Dr. Foster said in a video uploaded to YouTube entitled "The Ultimate Guide to Reinventing Yourself in 2025." To her, "behavior follows identity," and the most important work in reinvention lies not in what you do but in who you become.
With Dr. Foster's insights in mind, the following list of reinvention micro tips is designed to cut through the online noise and focus on actionable steps that align with the deeper work of becoming the person you need to be to truly reinvent yourself.
1.Define and visualize:
Delmaine Donson/Getty ImagesReprogramming your mindset starts with seeing yourself differently and visualization is a powerful tool to usher in that transformation. By defining your future self in vivid detail, you create a blueprint for the person you are becoming. Visualization techniques allow you to practice embodying that version of yourself before the external shifts happen, bridging the gap between who you are now and who you want to be. Some visualization techniques include:
The understanding here is that the more you see it, the more you’ll believe it, and with time, the more you’ll become it.
2.Create an identity board:
If you want to know want to know what an identity board is, it's like a vision board, but better. While vision boards are known for their ability to help you focus on external aspirations and goals, identity boards are great tools to use that help you delve deeper than what's outside of yourself. Instead, it helps you better align with the values, traits, and mindset of the dream identity you are working toward.
As Peace Immam shared in her YouTube video, an identity board can be a transformative tool for reprogramming your subconscious beliefs and shifting away from limiting patterns that keep you playing small. According to Peace, identity boards can be very specific to you, including images or symbols that represent the mindset, lifestyle, and habits you desire to become versus what you want to achieve outside of you.
By focusing on the habits, traits, and lifestyle of that reinvented version of you through an identity board, you place yourself on the path to embodying the identity, aligning with the energy and behaviors of your present self with the reinvented self you are becoming.
3.Write a personal mission statement:
ShutterstockIf creating an identity board isn’t your thing, crafting a personal mission statement is another powerful way to gain clarity, vision, and focus. A personal mission statement helps you align your values with your goals. This simple yet impactful exercise anchors you in your journey of reinvention, aligning you with the energy of your dream self while shaping your decisions and daily habits.
When you define who you want to be and the life you want to create, you give yourself a roadmap to move through life with intention. Whether it’s a paragraph or a single sentence, your personal statement keeps you grounded in your purpose and future vision.
4.Pay attention to your thoughts and change your inner dialogue:
Whether you realize it or not, your inner dialogue influences how you see yourself and what you believe is possible at your core. Negative self-talk and limiting beliefs can keep you tethered to a version of yourself you've outgrown, making it difficult to step into your fullest potential. Similarly to what Dr. Foster touched on at the start, a big part of reprogramming your identity lies in observing these thoughts and beliefs that no longer serve you and consciously choosing to rewrite them.
You can begin by paying attention to what you think about yourself, i.e., your strengths, your worth, and your abilities. When you catch yourself thinking limiting beliefs, challenge them by replacing them with self-affirmations that reflect the version of yourself you are becoming. This practice helps align your inner dialogue with the energy and mindset needed to match that of your future self.
True transformation happens when your beliefs about yourself are in harmony with the person you need to be to achieve your goals.
5.Thoughtfully build your circle:
Vladimir Vladimirov/Getty ImagesThe relationships and connections you surround yourself with play a vital role in your journey of reinvention. Evaluating your circle isn’t just about letting go of toxic friendships or relationships that no longer serve you, it’s also about intentionally creating a support system that aligns with your values, goals, and the person you’re becoming. Thoughtfully curating your circle ensures you have the foundation you need to thrive.
Nurture friendships and connections that are healthy, uplifting, and reciprocal. Look for bonds that foster your growth and provide mutual encouragement, and don’t overlook the importance of community care. Building networks outside of romantic relationships, be it through mentors, colleagues, online groups, or hobby-based communities, creates a web of support that can inspire, guide, and uplift you as you evolve.
6.Carve out space for God and meditation:
A recurring theme across the reinvention is the importance of nurturing a spiritual life. In the videos I watched specifically, some creators shared that they meditate daily for grounding and clarity, while others emphasized the importance of carving out time for God at the start of their day by watering their relationship with Him through prayer, focus, and connection.
Prioritizing this spiritual time helps center you, providing the clarity, peace, and strength to rise to your fullest potential and stay aligned with your purpose. A daily spiritual practice helps center you, giving you the clarity and focus to rise to your fullest potential.
7.Invest in yourself:
Rocka/Getty ImagesReinvention requires intentional investment in your growth, confidence, and well-being. Start by refreshing your wardrobe to reflect the elevated version of yourself you’re stepping into or developing a signature scent that embodies your essence. Cultivate different routines (morning, night, self-care, skincare, etc.) that support this transformation and help you feel aligned with your new identity daily. Beyond the physical upgrades, invest in your personal development through courses and classes that support your talents, teach new skills, and refine your strengths.
If you have the means, consider working with life coaches or therapists, even temporarily, as they can act as guides and accountability partners on your journey. These professionals provide tools to help you hone in on your life vision, stay aligned with your goals, and navigate the challenges of growth with clarity and intention.
When you pour into yourself, you create fertile ground to flourish in your reinvention.
8.Leave your comfort zone:
You know what they say, growth begins where your comfort zone ends. Trying something outside of your usual routine, like attending an event alone, starting a new hobby, or exploring a new city, helps you build confidence and expand your perspective, which is why leaving your comfort zone is a powerful cheat code to reinvention. Want to know another cheat code for stepping out of your comfort zone? Making regular solo dates a practice.
Take yourself to a new restaurant, explore a museum, or try an activity you’ve always been curious about, all in the name of cultivating independence and deepening your connection with yourself. And, of course, entering into the realm of your fullest potential.
Pushing past your limits allows you to discover strengths and qualities you didn’t know you had, which is essential for reinventing yourself. Each step outside your comfort zone helps reshape your identity, aligning you with the confident and capable version of yourself you’re striving to become.
9.Celebrate your wins, both big and small:
miniseries/Getty Images
When you’re in the process of making shifts, inviting big change, and growing into a new version of yourself, it’s easy to overlook the importance of celebrating the wins you collect along the way. The journey of reinventing yourself can be challenging, and acknowledging the big wins (and the small wins) helps to keep you motivated and grounded. Small celebrations create moments of joy and gratitude that give you the momentum to continue stepping into your higher self.
Also, an important note to remember: what feels like a win to you might not be important to someone else, and that’s okay. You don’t need external validation from the people around you to celebrate yourself. Whether it’s buying a cake to celebrate hitting 5,000 followers, treating yourself to something special for sticking to Dry January or having a photoshoot for your birthday, these milestones matter because they reflect your growth and commitment to self.
10.Prioritize fitness:
Prioritizing your fitness is a game-changer when it comes to reinvention and shifting your identity. Moving your body daily not only enhances your physical health but also builds discipline, confidence, and mental clarity, all of which are essential if reinvention is the goal. The benefits of regular fitness are unmatched, from improved mood and energy levels to a stronger sense of self-worth and accomplishment.
Starting your day with fitness, especially before work, is a powerful way to pour into yourself first. This practice reinforces the idea that you are a priority and sets the tone for showing up as your best self throughout the day. Whether it’s a mental health walk, yoga, Pilates, or an intense workout, finding sustainable forms of movement you enjoy helps you stay consistent with the future self you’re working to become.
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Featured image by StockRocket/Getty Images
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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
Kayla Nicole says she wore a dress that was once worn by Braxton herself for the Halloween costume. “It’s not a secret Toni is more on the petite side. I’m obsessed with all 5’2” of her,” she tells xoNecole via email. “But I’m 5’10'' and not missing any meals, honey, so to my surprise, when I got the dress and it actually fit, I knew it was destiny.”
The episode was the perfect way for the multihyphenate to take control of her own narrative. By addressing the viral moment on her own platform, she was able to stir the conversation and keep the focus on her adoration for Braxton, an artist she says she grew up listening to and who still makes her most-played playlist every year. Elsewhere, she likely would’ve received questions about whether or not the costume was a subliminal aimed at her ex-boyfriend and his pop star fiancée. “I think that people will try to project their own narratives, right?” she said, hinting at this in the episode. “But, for me personally – I think it’s very important to say this in this moment – I’m not in the business of tearing other women down. I’m in the business of celebrating them.”
Kayla Nicole is among xoNecole’s It Girl 100 Class of 2025, powered by SheaMoisture, recognized in the Viral Voices category for her work in media and the trends she sets on our timelines, all while prioritizing her own mental and physical health. As she puts it: “Yes, I’m curating conversations on my podcast The Pre-Game, and cultivating community with my wellness brand Tribe Therepē.”
Despite being the frequent topic of conversation online, Kayla Nicole says she’s learning to take advantage of her growing social media platform without becoming consumed by it. “I refuse to let the internet consume me. It’s supposed to be a resource and tool for connection, so if it becomes anything beyond that I will log out,” she says.
On The Pre-Game, which launched earlier this year, she has positioned herself as listeners “homegirl.” “There’s definitely a delicate dance between being genuine and oversharing, and I’ve had to learn that the hard way. Now I share from a place of reflection, not reaction,” she says. “If it can help someone feel seen or less alone, I’ll talk about it within reason. But I’ve certainly learned to protect parts of my life that I cherish most. I share what serves connection but doesn’t cost me peace.
"I refuse to let the internet consume me. It’s supposed to be a resource and tool for connection, so if it becomes anything beyond that I will log out."
Credit: Malcolm Roberson
Throughout each episode, she sips a cocktail and addresses trending topics (even when they involve herself). It’s a platform the Pepperdine University alumnus has been preparing to have since she graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism, with a concentration in political science.
“I just knew I was going to end up on a local news network at the head anchor table, breaking high speed chases, and tossing it to the weather girl,” she says. Instead, she ended up working as an assistant at TMZ before covering sports as a freelance reporter. (She’s said she didn’t work for ESPN, despite previous reports saying otherwise.) The Pre-Game combines her love for pop culture and sports in a way that once felt inaccessible to her in traditional media.
She’s not just a podcaster, though. When she’s not behind the mic, taking acting classes or making her New York Fashion Week debut, Kayla Nicole is also busy elevating her wellness brand Tribe Therepē, where she shares her workouts and the workout equipment that helps her look chic while staying fit. She says the brand will add apparel to its line up in early 2026.
“Tribe Therepē has evolved into exactly what I have always envisioned. A community of women who care about being fit not just for the aesthetic, but for their mental and emotional well-being too. It’s grounded. It’s feminine. It’s strong,” she says. “And honestly, it's a reflection of where I am in my life right now. I feel so damn good - mentally, emotionally, and physically. And I am grateful to be in a space where I can pour that love and light back into the community that continues to pour into me.”
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 by Malcolm Roberson