Melanie Fiona's pivot from Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter, to mental wellness and self-care mom, has been everything cultivated into what we love to see. She has evolved into the big sister in all of our heads, showing off her adorably-hilarious family, which consists of her fiance, Jared Cotter, and son, Cam.
At the top of the year, Jared and Melanie were scheduled to be married, which due to the pandemic, was rescheduled multiple times. But listen, true love...true love cannot be stopped, m'kay? The couple instead, decided to tie the knot anyway and they commemorated the occasion with the wedding announcement video that made our little, overjoyed hearts flicker for their lives.
Of the video, Fiona said:
"Anything is Possible...✨ If you're willing to adjust your perspective. We had to postpone our wedding three times this year. We had to accept that a full ceremony with our loved ones could not be possible until 2021. But we also knew we wanted to be married this year. So, we made it happen!!! We took what was in our control and saw it through. On 12-12-2020, I married my best friend, in the most perfectly possible way."
Melanie's caption continued:
"Remember, things might not look the way you envisioned, but if you're willing to surrender... to detach from your ideals and expectations, you can joyfully find your way back to the intention. The reason you started in the first place. What you feel, what you see, here, is a reflection of that intention."
Set to the tune of John Legend's "Who Do We Think We Are", the video opens with Cam busting his best celebratory moves and linking up with mom and dad for a stylish family photo shoot.
Melanie Fiona
The couple then enjoy a toast, and fixes the other up to get ready for their big day. As they get into the car, Jared puts into the GPS directions to LA Wedding Chapel, Same Day Marriage.
Melanie Fiona
They vibe and have a blast on the way, which they arrive to, fully masked. After a few shots and signing a little paperwork, the couple get married (and by this time, I'm screaming with tissues!)
Melanie Fiona
But wait, ya'll, it gets better! The newlyweds then head off to the first place in line (you know, because, priorities!)...to get a drank!
Melanie Fiona
"We will for sure have our full celebration/ceremony when we can, but like I said in yesterday's post, the right time to take the right action, is RIGHT NOW. Thank you for all your love and support. We are OVERJOYED."
Melanie Fiona
Join my obsession with alllllllll of this and watch the full video here. Congratulations to the Cotters!
Feature image courtesy of Instagram/Melanie Fiona
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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
