Dakota Rose Ostrenga (born September 19, 1995), known professionally as Dakota Rose, is an American model, fashion blogger, and television personality based in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Rose achieved early Internet fame by posting make-up tutorials on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, which went viral in Asia and earned her the nickname "real-life

Barbie Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. ...

doll." After gaining attention in Japan, Rose modeled exclusively for the magazine ''

Popteen ''Popteen'' is a monthly teenage fashion magazine published by the ''Kadokawa Haruki Corporation'' in Japan. The first issue was published on 1 October 1980 by ''Kadokawa Shoten''. Later issues were published by ''Asuka Shinsha'' who bought the ...

'' and also appeared on runways, commercials, and variety shows. She is represented by

Platinum Production is a Japanese talent agency headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It was founded in 2000 and focuses on talent management for ''tarento'', models, actors and musical artists. The headquarters is currently situated on the ninth floor of the Yushin M ...

Early life

Dakota Rose Ostrenga was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to Cathy and Scott Ostrenga. Her siblings include an older brother named Kyler, and an older sister named Kirsten, known as Myspace and Stickam personality Kiki Kannibal. Rose moved to

Coral Springs, Florida Coral Springs, officially the City of Coral Springs, is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is located approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 134,394. It is a ...

in 2005 when her father's computer engineering job transferred him there. Throughout the mid 2000s, Rose was active in the scene culture, posting videos on MySpace with Kirsten. Rose's family moved from online harassment before finally settling in her grandmother's house somewhere outside of

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

after their house in Coral Springs was foreclosed.

Career

2011–2012: YouTube career

Rose joined

in 2011 under the username "dakotakoti" and began posting make-up and styling tutorials, most of which were unvoiced and gave instructions through subtitles. Her videos gained media attention for her doll-like appearance, comparing her to a "living doll." Despite criticisms of digitally altering her appearance, her videos went viral in Asia and were uploaded to Niconico. Rose's make-up tutorials were profiled in Japanese talk and variety shows '' Gyōretsu no Dekiru Hōritsu Sōdanjo'', ''Pon!'' and ''Down Down DX''. Media reports nicknamed her the "real-life

doll" and her YouTube channel gained more than 500,000 subscribers, with her videos gaining more than 30 million views.

2012–present: Modeling debut

In April 2012, Rose signed with a Japanese model agency and moved to Japan. Japanese television program ''Zip!'' did a feature segment on Rose, where she personally appeared for the first time. On September 1, 2012, she made her model runway debut in the

Tokyo Girls Collection The , sometimes abbreviated as TGC, is a semiannual fashion festival launched in 2005. It is mainly held near Tokyo area and some local cities such as Kitakyushu, Nagoya and Okinawa. The fashion event showcases the seasons fashionable streetwear by ...

in Nagoya. In April 2013, she also appeared at the Sapporo Collection 2013 show. Later that year, she released her first photobook, ''All About Dakota Rose''. Rose also appeared in the commercial for ''

Rage of Bahamut is a digital collectible card battle game developed by Cygames and published by DeNA. It was a social card game released on Mobage's mobile game network, in Japan in 2011 and worldwide in 2012. The game exceeded three million players outsid ...

''. Rose was an exclusive model for the magazine ''

'' from the April 2014 issue to the September 2015 issue. She also became the image model for the fashion brand CandyDoll. Rose also modeled for

Baby, The Stars Shine Bright is the name of a Japanese clothing brand created in 1988 by Akinori Isobe and his wife, Fumiyo. Baby, The Stars Shine Bright specializes in Lolita fashion. The company's flagship store, opened in 1999 in Daikanyamachō, Shibuya, was relocated t ...

and Alice and the Pirates at a promotional event for the online RPG ''The Tower of Princess''. In 2017, Rose appeared in a commercial for Lotte Fits. She also modeled at the

Girls Award , sometimes abbreviated as GA, is a semi-annual fashion and music event held at Yoyogi National Gymnasium 1st Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the biggest fashion events in Japan, with approximately 30,000 people attending each time. It is ...

2017 Autumn/Winter show, Fukuoka Asia Collection 10th Anniversary Spring/Summer show, Girls Award 2018 Spring/Summer show, and Toita Fes 2018: Sirius.

Personal life

In 2018, Rose revealed via

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

that she has leukemia.

Publications

Filmography

Television

Music video

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dakota Rose 1995 births Living people American bloggers American expatriates in Japan American women bloggers American YouTubers Beauty and makeup YouTubers Expatriate television personalities in Japan Female models from Illinois American female YouTubers Women video bloggers Video bloggers 21st-century American women