Girl's first -- paid attention and shone (9)
I believe the answer is:
glistened
'shone' is the definition.
('glisten' can be a synonym of 'shine')
'girl's first paid attention' is the wordplay.
'first' says to take the initial letters.
'paid attention' becomes 'listened' (I've seen this before).
The initial letter of 'girl' is 'g'.
'g'+'listened'='GLISTENED'
'and' is the link.
I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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