An "It Girl" is slang for a beautiful, stylish young woman who possesses sex appeal without flaunting her sexuality. The phrase is believed to have originated as in British upper class society around the turn of the 20th century. An early literary usage of the term "it" in this context may be traced to a 1904 short story by Rudyard Kipling: "It isn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just 'It'." The expression reached global attention in 1927, with the popularity of the Paramount Studios film It, starring Clara Bow.  Elinor Glyn, the notorious English novelist who wrote the book It and the screenplay based on it, lectured: "With 'It,' you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man. 'It' can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction." Glyn, who first rose to fame as the author of the scandalous 1907 bestseller Three Weeks, is usually credited with the invention of the "It Girl" concept, although it predates her book and movie. But she is definitely responsible for the impact the term had on the culture of the 1920s.