Meet Miquela.
Miquela started an Instagram account in mid-2016 and
within around three months garnered roughly 65,000 followers and
today stands at over 140,000 followers and counting.
These are no doubt impressive numbers, but what is it that makes Miquela so notable?
Well, as you can probably tell, she isn't real. Yet, she behaves as though she is.
Miquela is politically vocal, outgoing, vibrant and
supposedly lives a luxurious L.A.-based lifestyle complete with designer clothing and celebrity friends such as
musicians: Tim Anderson and Tom Krell.
In September of 2016, news and media sites began to take notice in this growing online star,
spawning dozens of articles and even attracting coverage by Telmo News, Philip Defranco, and the BBC.
It goes without saying that what you're looking at isn't human.
Animation and visual effects veteran of 15 years; Dougie Krauss,
has been referenced in several articles about Miquela.
Stating that he believes that this girl is a blend between 3D modeling and actual photography.
So, yes. Miquela obviously is just a character, but what exactly is her purpose?
As expected, the internet has come up with a few theories that basically break down into three categories.
Either Michaela is the work of an individual, a private group, or a company.
Many believe that Michaela is some kind of art student or group
who've chosen Instagram as a venue to showcase their work.
After all, Michaela wouldn't be the first to use Instagram as a virtual stage for a performance.
On April 19th of 2014, a woman named Amalia Ulman posted this photo
to her Instagram along with it was a caption reading:
"Excellences and Perfections."
Over the next five months, Amalia seem to have transformed completely
from a modest art school graduate
to vain and unapologetically materialistic.
She underwent breast augmentation surgery,
donned lingerie in many of her posts, and even started taking on pole dancing lessons.
Naturally, many of her colleagues were stunned by the sudden change and unfortunately many disapproved.
Five months later, Amalia posted of photo of a rose with a black and white filter that read:
"The End - Excellences and Perfections."
Yes, everything she posted over the last several months was actually staged.
The breast augmentation was faked,
she didn't actually take up pole dancing, and wasn't actually as vain as she had appeared.
After the photo of the rose, Amalia's Instagram account went back to normal, leaving her
85,000 new followers speechless.
Amalia later went on to showcase "Excellences and Perfections" in various art galleries
and was even featured in Forbes 30 under 30.
The performance, of course, took a satirical and exaggerated stance at how people choose to represent themselves online
and celebrity culture alike.
YouTube, unsurprisingly, is no stranger to this.
Especially after the recent popularity of "That Poppy" --
a YouTube/Pop star meant to parody both Hollywood and internet culture, who confused
thousands of people because she's actually associated with a legitimate record label.
If you're interested in details on that, you can watch this full explanation video I did on her a few months ago.
Shameless plug, I know, but I have to do it.
Another widely agreed upon theory is that Miquela is actually a part of a viral marketing campaign,
most likely for an upcoming Sims game hence her appearance.
Viral marketing has become increasingly popular over the years, duping the public time and time again,
with people instantly hitting the share button without any knowledge that what they're sharing isn't real.
In 2012, a no-name YouTube account uploaded a video of a pig rescuing a baby goat from drowning.
The video was soon shared by various mainstream news companies such as NBC and Fox and then went viral.
But was eventually revealed to have been staged by Comedy Central for an upcoming series.
Yes, the media does get things wrong.
Of course, if you want my personal opinion which, let's be honest, you probably don't,
I don't think that this is the work of a company
Miquela has very human behaviors, posts on different social media platforms,
and doesn't come off like someone paid to pretend to be a young woman.
Take, for example, this tweet posted in response to Shane Dawson.
This definitely seems very personal and just isn't consistent with the behavior of a PR stunt.
Unless Twitter beef is their route to free promotion.
And, in case you're wondering, the two apparently talked it out, and they're fine so,
--good on them.
Another notable factor in this equation
is that Miquela does have an email address and people have tried to contact her.
According to two different reporters, they emailed Miquela only to be met
by a response from a Miquela Souza along with her PR person.
This, of course, raises new speculation about what's going on here.
As I mentioned before, Miquela has made it clear that she has friends in the entertainment business
Plus, she also does have a link to a Spotify playlist in her Instagram bio.
If you go onto it, it says that it's a collection of her favorite songs from
2016 and that she'd be posting more information about them on Instagram.
Despite all this, there really is no way to know for sure what it all means or if there even really is a PR person.
Maybe it's all just a part of the Miquela narrative.
There are a ton more theories floating around the internet
But we'll never ultimately know the truth unless Miquela chooses to come forward about it.
The big question that I want to know the answer to though is if any of this ultimately matters?
If Miquela isn't some PR campaign and really is just a performance piece or a 3D generated online star,
Will that change anything for you?
Or does it not matter as long as you enjoy what she puts out into the world?
The exact same question can also apply to YouTubers.
If someone you watch and possibly feel connected to pulled a "lonelygirl15" and turned out to be fabricated,
would you walk out on them?
Let me know what you think about all this in the comment section down below.
And, as always, my name is ReignBot,
Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you all in the next video.