Meet Miquela. Her Instagram following is over 3 million. Miquela has been featured in product endorsements for streetwear and luxury brands such as Calvin Klein and Prada.
AND SHE’S NOT A REAL PERSON.
Miquela is a 19-year-old Robot living in LA according to her bio. She is in actuality an influencer created by Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou.
“This is where dreams exceed expectations.”
From Vox:
Conversations about diversity and representation in the fashion industry were already at a fever pitch. An influx of avatars makes it even more complicated.
This brings us to the controversy of virtual influencers. They are physically perfect women made of pixels, standing in for women who have long been pressured to become physically perfect, without the advantage of that even being possible. Lil Miquela herself acknowledged this, sort of, when she asked YouTube conspiracy theorist Shane Dawson, in response to a question about the manipulation of her image, “Can you name one person on Instagram who doesn’t edit their photos?” The women of the fashion industry and particularly of Instagram are already pushed to Photoshop themselves, or to real-life-Photoshop themselves, which is to say “get cosmetic surgery.”
