And then a hero comes along, with the strength to carry on...
Every Superman needs a Superwoman, and for La La Anthony, she has become a guardian angel in one very special young man's life.
For those of you who have been keeping up with La La's social media, the media personality has been campaigning for the support and awareness of young Anthony "Superman" Skipper, who has been suffering from an anoxic brain injury after having a seizure in the bathtub and nearly drowning to death in 2015. Although the Sunrise, Florida native was rescued by his younger brother Willie, by the time Anthony was resuscitated, the damage to his brain had already been done.
"It was just sad because I've seen so many pictures of him [before his accident] doing back flips and having fun, but he was born premature and he suffered from seizures. He hadn't had a seizure in two years, but unfortunately the first seizure he had in two years, it was when he was in the bathtub, so he went under the water. His eight year-old brother, who is very close with [my son] Kiyan now, really pulled him out of the tub and saved his life.About the time they pulled him out the tub and actually got a pulse on him, his brain was without oxygen for over 15 minutes, and he was in the semi-vegetative state. He's the oldest one."
Superman's life caught the attention of La La when family and friends of the young boy had campaigned in her comments in hopes of bringing awareness to her about his condition. Before his accident, Anthony had already endured more than a few medical setbacks and procedures. By the age of one, the preemie baby who was born 1 lb, 4 oz, had already endured four different types of corrective surgeries. Since his accident last year, the 12-year-old has had to learn all basic life functions all over again.
La La Helping Superman Anthony to Celebrate his 11th Birthday in 2016.
La La's Son Kiyah Posing with Superman Anthony at his 11th Birthday Party
Anthony is all tired after a whole day of partying with his family and friends
Superman Anthony at 10, before and after his accident
Superman is currently on a ventilator and oxygen tank to assist with breathing. Anthony attempted to breathe on his own at one point and was doing well, until the day his lungs filled with fluid and collapsed. Now, he has to get a trach to help him swallow his foods. His mother has had to quit her job in order to assist with Anthony's round the clock care, as well as be a mom to her three other children.
Superman Anthony and his baby sister "Pooh" last year
Perhaps it was the shared name between La La Anthony and "Superman Anthony," or God Himself, but either way, La La went from making a donation to completely turning around Anthony and his family's way of living:
"This kid has just changed my life. I found his story on Instagram, which is really weird because I see a lot of stuff on Instagram. But for some reason, I really took to his story. And at first, I just did a donation from me and Melo (Carmelo Anthony). And then I found out that he was a fan of Melo's. And as I got more into the story, I became connected with the family and talked to his mom and just wanted to know more about it.
"What we initially did at first was, I found out he was doing a little physical therapy at home, but he wasn't really getting the care he needed [since] certain insurances don't provide certain things. So what we did was we transferred all his doctors now to Miami Children's Hospital, someone from D.Wade's team helped us to make that transition. So now we have all the best doctors trying to at least give him a shot at trying to get better."
But La La didn't stop there; she'd go on to willingly expense most of Anthony's needs, while also using some of her celebrity connections to further assist in Superman's needs:
Superman Anthony and his younger siblings posing by his new wheelchair accessible van!
"I reached out to Kia (Motors Corporation) because I knew Lebron had his deal with Kia, and they were so kind enough to, with no questions asked, to donate a van. So his family got the van this week so he could get to his appointments. Before then, when [his mom] would have to take him places, she would have to go through the insurance two weeks ahead of time and she'd spend more time than none just trying to get a ride. She would be outside and the van would never come pick him up and he'd never be able to get to his appointments and where he'd need to go. So her having a van was really key.
I've gotten so close to his family and with him. I flew down for his birthday [this weekend]. I've never been this connected to one person before because we help a lot of people, but this was just something so different. He has changed my life. It's really an unexplainable thing. I explain it by saying, 'It's God' because I found this person on Instagram and I see stuff like this on Instagram all the time, you know what I mean? But I'm just really so, so connected."
Since going viral, Superman Anthony's story has also inspired others, including La La's husband and NBA Knicks' star, Carmelo Anthony, who has Instagrammed several photos of Superman, with his most recent one thanking the young boy for being his "hero."
Other celebrities who have been impacted by Superman's triumphant battle includes rappers Fetty Wap and Flo-Rida, both of whom La La admits were Superman's favorite rappers before his accident:
"Some of the most unexpected people have reached out to help! I don't even know [rapper] Flo-Rida like that, we actually have a relationship now because of what he did. But when I tell you this man reached out to me and drove 45 minutes, didn't sleep, went to the hospital and was there all day, took pictures, brought $1000 gift cards from Toys R Us, and he had bought custom t-shirts for the whole family that said 'Superman Anthony' with his face on it. Who does that? It was just amazing. The kind of people that really stepped up to the plate. It's just amazing."
[Tweet ""You don't have to look for help. When people want to help, they'll find you." -@Lala"]
Similar to Fetty, Superman Anthony was born with an eye defect as well. Called "Retinopathy of Prematurity," ROP is a disease that occurs in many premature babies and causes abnormal blood vessels to grow in the retina. The growth can cause detachment from the back of the eye and, needless to say, Anthony suffered blindness in one eye and wears a prosthetic one in place of it.
"When Fetty Wap heard him, I told Fetty that he was Superman's favorite artist before the incident. He sent a nice video. I found that, when people find it in their hearts [to give], they'll find you. You don't have to hound people or reach out to them or do that. People will find you and want to help, which has been amazing."
La La also explained to those asking why she feels the need to go so hard for Anthony's ongoing care, despite having already raised a good chunk of change for his family. She addressed people's constant questioning of celebrities who ask for assistance in situations like these:
"It's just funny sometimes because when you're a celebrity and when you ask people for donations or try to raise money, they're like 'Oh, why can't you [pay for it?]' And they don't realize how much money it takes. I've contributed a lot out of my own pocket for this kid. Transportation to get to his appointments, his doctors switched, his wheelchair rushed to be made, getting the wheelchair lift to be put in the van. I don't care about a checklist, but when you ask people to donate, their reaction is, 'Why can't you?' It takes a village.Anthony needs 24-hour care, so his mom had to give up her job, she's with him all the time and gets everything for him because the nurses at times don't even show up. So she has to watch him all through the night and not sleep at all, so she had to give up her job. So the donations are really to help keep all of that going. And she has three other kids. But man, people have been so generous with their help over the last few weeks and it's been amazing."Anthony Undergoing Daily Physical Therapy
Although grateful to have been able to learn more about Anthony and his condition, La La did admit that her time with him has helped her empathize with other people in similar situations, whose stories are lesser known:
"It is sad to me that he was basically sent home from the hospital to kind of just die. But when you start making calls on behalf of me and Melo and down in Miami, D.Wade's assistant making calls to help us out, now all of a sudden everybody moves differently. It's just sad for all the families who don't have insurance, or people that are calling around and pushing for them.
[Tweet ""It's sad to me. He was basically sent home to just die." - @Lala on #SupermanAnthony"]
"I saw today, someone donated, I don't know who it was, $5000 on his page, which was just amazing. Even $5, 10 people donate $5, that stuff adds up. It just starts adding up."
So what's next for the two new best friends?
Well, you can expect this to be a friendship of a lifetime for La, who admits that she's already made plans to see #TeamSuperman again. This time, she is sending all of his siblings, including baby brother Willie who originally rescued the kid hero, to New York City!
"My plan is, I'm going to go there often. Actually, Kiyan's birthday is actually coming up, and I'm going to bring his two brothers up to New York for his birthday. They need love and attention and they need to get out the house a little bit. You know, it must be hard to see your brother like that everyday."
Phenomenal! A major salute to La La and those helping out others in similar situations. If you want to donate to Superman Anthony and his family, you can go to his GoFundMe page here!
Also find out more about Superman Anthony by visiting his Instagram page.
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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
Then there were those who gave up their zip code altogether and found a permanent home in the skies. After years spent recruiting students for a university, Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare became a full-time travel influencer and founded her travel company, Shakespeare Agency. And she's not alone.
These stories mirror the experiences of women across the world. For millions, the pandemic induced a seismic shift in priorities and desires. Corporate careers that were once hailed as the ultimate “I made it” moment in one's career were pushed to the back burner as women quit their jobs in search of a more self-fulfilling purpose.
xoNecole spoke to these three Black women who used the pandemic as a springboard to make their wildest dreams a reality, the lessons they learned, and posed the question of whether they’ll ever return to cubicle life.
Answers have been edited for context and length.
xoNecole: How did the pandemic lead to you leaving the cubicle?
Randi: I was becoming stagnant. I was working in mortgage and banking but I felt like my personality was too big for that job! From there, I transitioned to radio but was laid off during the pandemic. That’s what made me go full throttle with entrepreneurship.
Gabrielle: I moved around a lot for work. Five times over a span of seven years. I knew I needed a break because I had experienced so much. So, I just quit one day. Effective immediately. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew I needed a break and to just regroup.
Lisa-Gaye: I was working in recruiting at a university and my dream job just kind of fell into my lap! But, I never got to fully enjoy it before the world shut down in March [2020] and I was laid off. On top of that, I was stuck in Miami because Jamaica had closed its borders due to the pandemic before I was able to return.
Randi O
xoN: Tell us about your journey after leaving Corporate America.
Randi: I do it all now! I have a podcast, I’m an on-air talent, I act, and I own a public relations company that focuses on social media engagement. It’s all from my network. When you go out and start a business, you can’t just say, “Okay I’m done with Corporate America,” and “Let me do my own thing.” If you don’t build community, if you don’t build a network it's going to be very hard to sustain.
Gabrielle: I realized in New York, there was not a lot to do for Black lesbians and queer folks. We don’t really have dedicated bars and spaces so I started doing events and it took off. I started focusing on my brand, Raw Honey. I opened a co-working space, and I was able to host an NYC Pride event in front of 100,000 people. I hit the ground running with Raw Honey. My events were all women coming to find community and come together with other lesbians and queer folks. I found my purpose in that.
Lisa-Gaye: After being laid off, I wrote out all of my passions and that’s how I came up with [my company] Shakespeare Agency. It was all of the things that I loved to do under one umbrella. The pandemic pulled that out of me. I had a very large social media following, so I pitched to hotels that I would feature them on my blog and social media. This reignited my passion for travel. I took the rest of the year to refocus my brand to focus solely on being a content creator within the travel space.
Gabrielle
xoN: What have you learned about yourself during your time as an entrepreneur?
Randi: [I learned] the importance of my network and community that I created. When I was laid off I was still keeping those relationships with people that I used to work with. So it was easy for me to transition into social media management and I didn’t have to start from scratch.
Gabrielle: The biggest thing I learned about myself was my own personal identity as a Black lesbian and how much I had assimilated into straight and corporate culture and not being myself. Now, I feel comfortable and confident being my authentic self. Now, I'm not sacrificing anything else for my career. I have a full life. I have friends. I have a social life. And when you are happy and have a full quality of life, I feel like [I] can have more longevity in my career.
Lisa-Gaye: [I'm doing] the best that I've ever done. The discipline that I’m building within myself. Nobody is saying, ‘Oh you have to be at work at this time.’ There’s no boss saying, ‘Why are you late?’ But, if I’m laying in bed at 10 a.m. then it's me saying [to myself], 'Okay, Lisa, get up, it's time for you to start working!’ That’s all on me.
xoNecole: What mistakes do you want to help people avoid when leaving Corporate America?
Randi: You have to learn about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. You have a fast season and a slow season and I started to learn that when you're self-employed the latter season hits hard. Don't get caught up on the lows, just keep going and don't stop. I’m glad I did.
Gabrielle: I think everyone should quit their job and just figure it out for a second. You will discover so much about yourself when you take a second to just focus on you. Your skill set will always be there. You can’t be afraid of what will happen when you bet on yourself.
Lisa-Gaye: When it comes to being an influencer the field is saturated and a lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome. There is nothing wrong with being an imposter but find out how to make it yours, how to make it better. If you go to the store, you see 10 million different brands of bread! But you are choosing the brand that you like because you like that particular flavor.
So be an imposter, but be the best imposter of yourself and add your own flair, your own flavor. Make the better bread. The bread that you want.
Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare
xoNecole: Will you ever return to your 9 to 5?
Randi: I wouldn’t go back to Corporate America. But I don’t mind working under someone. A lot of people try to get into this business saying, “I can't work under anyone.” That’s not necessarily the reason to start a business because you're always going to answer to somebody. Clients, brands, there’s always someone else involved.
Gabrielle: I went back! I really needed a break and I gave myself that. But, I realized I’m a corporate girl, [and] I enjoy the work that I do. I’m good at it and I really missed that side of myself. I have different sides of me and my whole identity is not Raw Honey or my queerness. A big side of me is business and that’s why I love having my career. Now I feel like my best self.
Lisa-Gaye: I really don’t. For right now, I love working for myself. It's gratifying, it's challenging, it's exciting. It’s a big deal for me to say I own my own business. That I am my own boss, and I'm a Black woman doing it.
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Featured image courtesy of Lisa-Gaye Shakespeare
Originally published on February 6, 2023