Meet our East Coast ItGirls. These fierce ladies are all about the hustle and bustle, with hearts as big as their ambitions. They’re not just keeping up with culture, they’re creating it, all while turning their creativity and self-expression all the way up. Let’s hear it for the ItGirls, setting the stage on fire and taking no prisoners!
Read about five of our ItGirls here, but be sure to check out the full ItGirl 100 List.
Scottie Beam
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Scottie Beam is a media personality, model, and cultural influencer. She began her on-air career with Hot 97’s morning show Ebro in the Morning. She now co-hosts The Scottie & Sylvia Show on Issa Rae’s Raedio.
Skylar Marshai
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Skylar Marshai is a creative strategist and director who loves culture, community, and human behavior. Blending a passion for content capture, design, and exploration, she aims to tell stories that resonate with how her Blackness feels across spaces.
Robyn Mowatt
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Robyn Mowatt is a writer and editor. Her work covers the intricacies of Black culture, designers, music, and entertainment. She is the former associate editor at Hypebae, where she developed the site's cultural content and focused on emerging designers, music, and Black Hollywood.
Maiya The Don
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Brooklyn's Maiya The Don, known for her viral hit "Telfy," balances rap stardom with a psychology double major at SUNY New Paltz. With infectious singles like "Keep It Cute" and "Dusties," she aims for rap greatness.
Gabrielle Williams
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Gabrielle Williams, founder of MeFeater Magazine, pioneers fashion and culture. With vision and passion, she fosters a platform for diverse voices, shaping the prevailing trends and attitudes of our time.
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While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Feature image by Leon Bennett/WireImage
