I consider this nearly century-old film a dud prior to Clara Bow entering the picture, though from that point onward things proceed gradually uphill and I ultimately become interested and enjoy this.

It's not hard to see why/how Bow became a star as a result of this movie, as she had a different look and way to her than did other young actresses of the mid 1920s.

From Wikipedia:

The Plastic Age is a 1925...silent film, starring Clara Bow, Donald Keith, and Gilbert Roland....The film was based on a best-selling novel from 1924 of the same name.... // ....Benjamin Percival Schulberg, the CEO of Preferred Pictures..., outbid all the major and minor studios for the rights to The Plastic Age.... // The film became a major hit in late 1925, and was Bow's first hit film. She became a star as a result of its success, which led her to being signed by a major studio and becoming a major star with the 1927 release of It. After seeing The Plastic Age soon after its release, Adolph Zukor, the founder and CEO of Paramount Pictures, contacted Schulberg, who had started his career as a publicist with Paramount before leaving the studio in 1918 to form Preferred Pictures....Zukor proposed to Schulberg that he wanted to merge Preferred Pictures with Paramount, so that he could get Bow and make a star out of her, due to what Zukor saw as the great potential that she had as an actress. Schulberg agreed, but wanted Zukor to allow him to produce and control the product that Paramount assigned to him for Bow, which included script, casting, production crew, and wardrobe control. He also wanted to be made an associate producer at Paramount. The deal was made in early November 1925.... // Appearing in minor uncredited roles [in The Plastic Age] are future film stars Janet Gaynor, Clark Gable, and Carole Lombard.

It's not surprising that Bow became known as "The 'It' Girl", as she definitely, indeed, had a something-special "it" factor about her.

I don't at all care for this movie's male lead, Donald Keith, who was no big deal whatsoever (which probably explains why he's today completely forgotten and even I had never heard of him before), though think secondary male lead Gilbert Roland (in his first major role) really stands out and is wonderful as the main character's initial college roommate and eventual estranged best friend (the two young men have a falling out over Clara Bow's Cynthia Day character). [FYI: In real life, Bow and Roland became engaged for a while after working together on this movie.]

More from Wikipedia (now from the Clara Bow article):

The Plastic Age was Bow's final effort for Preferred Pictures....[She] starred as the good-bad college girl, Cynthia Day....It was shot on location at Pomona College in the summer of 1925, and released on December 15, but due to block booking, it was not shown in New York until July 21, 1926.... // Theater owners...were happy: "The picture is the biggest sensation we ever had in our theater ... It is 100 per cent at the box-office." // Some critics felt Bow had conquered new territory: "(Bow) presents a whimsical touch to her work that adds greater laurels to her fast ascending star of screen popularity.".... // Bow began to date her co-star Gilbert Roland, who became her first fiancé.

Though supposedly Janet Gaynor and Carole Lombard are both in this film, I've never spotted either one of them (and, admittedly, have not actually ever, to date, attempted to scrutinize the face of each background bit player). Young Clark Gable, on the other hand, who has a bit part, is impossible to miss as he appears conspicuously, for multiple seconds, smiling (shirtless) in semi-closeup, in a college locker-room scene. In fact he appears, easily recognizably, multiple times throughout that extended locker-room scene.

If you're a fan of Clara Bow, and/or of 1920s college comedies, at some point check out this diverting flick.

Meanwhile, here are some threads that are on Bow's TMDb board.

Please check out the following list of titles and celebrities I've created TMDb threads for: https://www.themoviedb.org/list/118052