Who was Hollywood's 'It Girl' the year you were born and where are they now?

Julia Roberts' famous smile won over millions opposite Richard Gere in the updated Cinderella tale Pretty Woman in 1990 and kickstarted a decade of rom-com success.

She'll always be an 'It Girl' to us and has proven her celebrity staying power over the past 30 years with recent roles including Ticket to Paradise (2022) with George Clooney and After the Hunt (2025). 

Jodie Foster's Clarice starred opposite the horrifying Hannibal Lecter in Thomas Harris adaptation The Silence of the Lambs (1991). A defining role in a defining horror for the decade makes Jodie the perfect pick for 'It Girl' of the year.

Now, the two-time Oscar winner is still working on screen and returned to the role of crime-fighting force in the 2024 series of True Detective. She's also starred in 2025 thriller A Private Life and narrated Netflix documentary Breakdown: 1975.

Whitney Houston broke into film in The Bodyguard and broke records with her 1992 hit 'I Will Always Love You' and her debut role is still a defining one in her career. Cinema (and karaoke nights) haven't been the same since.

She went on to work on projects like Waiting to Exhale (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996) and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1997). The beloved singer sadly died on 11 February 2012 at 48 years old.

It's no surprise to find Whoopi Goldberg as the 'It Girl' for 1993, with no less than four movies to her name that year. The most notable are surely star roles in Made in America and Sister Act 2 which both showed off Whoopi's talent for comedy.

She's still busy today and has over 200 credits listed on IMDb, the most recent including period crime drama Godfather of Harlem, sitcom Harlem and voiced Cupcake in animated comedy Kevin.

In 1994, Winona Ryder featured on the cover of Vogue following a stand-out role in The Age of Innocence the year before. The same year she starred as a documentary filmmaker in Reality Bites as she and her fellow graduates face Houston life after college.

Winona remains an icon of trippy horror, returning to her role of Lydia in the Beetlejuice franchise for the 2024 sequel and hit Netflix series Stranger Things. 

As if the title of 1995's 'It Girl' could go to anyone other than Clueless star Alicia Silverstone! From her recognisable bright yellow check to straight-up Monets, we've been referencing this '90s-does-Austen feature ever since.

Alicia is still working on screen today. She recently starred in Oscar-nominated thriller Bugonia and festive comedy A Merry Little Ex-Mas.

Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger had a good year in 1996, to put it lightly. The year before she'd starred in cult classic Empire Records, leading into Tom Cruise romance Jerry Maguire and romantic drama The Whole Wide World.

Nowadays, she's best known for her role as Bridget Jones and returned for the film's fourth instalment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025) and Hulu hit series Only Murders in the Building. 

It was a double bill of success for Sarah Michelle Gellar in 1997 with star roles in I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream 2, as well as the first series of teen fantasy-horror Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

These weren't the final roles for the not-so-final girl. She recently appeared in legacy sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer of the same name and starred in 2025's Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.

It wasn't movies but music that defined 1998's 'It Girl', with Lauryn Hill earning the top spot in pop-culture and the Billboard 200. Her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill sold over 422,000 copies in its first week.

The mother-of-six is still working in music today and touring as a concert experience. Her art festival Diaspora Calling! is coming to the UK, featuring Wyclef Jean and two of her children.

At just 17 years old, Britney Spears made her Rolling Stone cover debut, the same year as her best loved release 'Baby One More Time' solidified the Halloween costume of choice for decades to come. 

The music icon found favour in the public as she broke free of her conservatorship in 2021. Following a DUI arrest, she spent several weeks in rehab and told her followers: "I still have to learn how to be kind to myself and the way I speak to myself".

Gabrielle Union starred in iconic '00s dance movie Bring It On. The actress led the East Compton Clovers group in their fight against the Kirsten Dunst's team which previously plagiarised all of their routines.

She recently starred in sitcom Cheaper by the Dozen (2022), worked with Octavia Spencer on Truth Be Told and voice-acted as Jett Fillmore in GOAT.

It was in 2001 that Elle Woods first stepped a bright pink heel onto the campus of Harvard Law School and proved that perfect curls don't mean you can't build an airtight court case. 

Over 20 years after learning the bend and snap, Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon has co-starred with Jennifer Aniston on The Morning Show, which she also executive produced, and appeared in You're Cordially Invited.

Halle Berry made history in 2002 as the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress. Other notable roles include Storm in X-Men (2000) and co-starring with Pierce Brosnan's 007 in Die Another Day (2002).

She's still acting today and has been recently credited on heist film Crime 101 (2026), horror Never Let Go (2024) and The Union (2024) with Mark Wahlberg. Halle has also worked off-set on a project tackling perimenopause taboos.

Beyoncé's debut solo studio album Dangerously in Love gave us the culture-shifting hit 'Crazy in Love' which is still an unavoidable track at every decent house party today.

The former Destiny's Child singer became a billionaire in 2025 and continues to make music history. Her viral track "Texas Hold 'Em' from 2024 album Cowboy Carter became the first country song by a Black woman to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.