Lil Miquela
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Miquela Sousa, or Lil Miquela, is a fictional American character created by Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou. The project began in 2016 as an
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 ...
profile. The account details a fictional narrative which presents Miquela as a CGI character and model in conflict with other digital projects while marketing a variety of brands, primarily in fashion. As a marketing tool, Miquela has been featured in product endorsements for
streetwear Streetwear is a style of casual clothing which became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding and Japanese street fashion. Eventually hau ...
and luxury brands such as
Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...
and
Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding t ...
. By April 2018, the account had amassed more than a million followers. , Miquela has over 3.1 million instagram followers.


Origins

The character Miquela is a teenaged
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 ...
model from
Downey, California Downey is a city located in Southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program. It is also the home of ...
. Miquela's first Instagram post was made on April 23, 2016. British model Emily Bador was rumored to be Miquela; Bador has denied managing the account but openly acknowledged the physical similarity between herself and the character. In April 2018, Brud, a Los Angeles-based startup led by McFedries, announced that it was the creator of both the character and the Instagram account.


Storyline

Miquela Sousa was created with the background of being a Brazilian-American 19-year-old. She has accounts on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. She is also active on YouTube and TikTok In April 2018, a second, similar character known as Bermuda "hacked" the Miquela account, deleting all photos of Miquela and replacing them with photos of the Bermuda character. Miquela and Bermuda were then revealed to both be characters created by Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou of Brud. The two online personas then began posting pictures together, and eventually the account was again run by Miquela's team. This narrative positioned the Miquela character as a social justice activist. In 2020, Miquela "consciously uncoupled" from her "human" boyfriend as a part of the storyline.


Fashion collaborations

The character has been pictured with a number of celebrities including Diplo, Molly Soda, Millie Bobby Brown, Nile Rogers, Shane Dawson, Samantha Urbani and Pabllo Vittar. She has been "interviewed" or profiled in a number of publications including Refinery29, Vogue, Buzzfeed, v-files, Nylon, the Guardian, Business of Fashion, and The Cut. She appeared on the cover of Highsnobiety in April 2018. She has also been featured in the magazines V and Paper.In February 2018, the character did an Instagram takeover for Prada as part of Milan Fashion Week. On May 16, she did a Calvin Klein ad with Bella Hadid, in which both were animated, in addition to a collaboration with Samsung. That year Miquela was hired as a contributing arts editor to the magazine Dazed. In 2020, Miquela became the first digital avatar to sign with a talent agency when a contract was signed with CAA—becoming its first virtual client. It was discovered at the time that Miquela had previously been represented by WME.


Online presence

The character has been pictured with a number of celebrities including
Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD with ...
,
Molly Soda Amalia Soto, known as Molly Soda, is a Brooklyn-based internet performance artist. Soda works across a variety of digital platforms, producing selfies videos, GIFs, zines, and web-based performance art, which are presented both online and in g ...
, Millie Bobby Brown,
Nile Rogers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...
, Shane Dawson, Samantha Urbani and Pabllo Vittar. and has been "interviewed" or profiled in a number of publications including
Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Vice Media. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Refinery29 i ...
, ''Vogue'',
BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
, v-files, ''
Nylon Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic. Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from petro ...
'', ''
the Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', '' Business of Fashion'', and The Cut. It appeared on the cover of ''
Highsnobiety Highsnobiety is a global fashion and lifestyle media brand founded in 2005 by David Fischer. It was bought by German e-commerce giant Zalando in 2022. Highsnobiety is headquartered in Berlin and has offices in Amsterdam, London, Milan, New York ...
'' in April 2018. In February 2018, the character did an Instagram takeover for
Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding t ...
as part of Milan Fashion Week. On May 16, it did a
Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...
ad with Bella Hadid, in which both were animated. They were shown kissing each other, which sparked accusations of queer-baiting. Calvin Klein then went on to apologize amidst the deep criticism, stating that their concept was to "promote freedom of expression for a wide range of identities, including a spectrum of gender and sexual identities". In April 2018, a second, similar character known as Bermuda "hacked" into the Miquela account, deleting all photos of Miquela and replacing them with photos of the Bermuda character. Lil Miquela and Bermuda were then revealed to both be characters created by Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou of Brud. The two online personas then began posting pictures together, and eventually the account was again run by Miquela's team. This narrative positioned the Miquela character as a social justice activist, something considered problematic when seen in tandem with its use as a
marketing tool Marketing strategy allows organizations to focus limited resources on best opportunities to increase sales and achieve a competitive advantage in the market. Strategic marketing emerged in the 1970s/80s as a distinct field of study, further build ...
. During 2019 Coachella, she took a picture with Spanish singer Rosalía.


Discography


Singles


Guest appearances


Music career

Trevor McFedries, a cofounder of Brud, is a music producer and DJed known as
Yung Skeeter Trevor McFedries (born November 27, 1985), is the co-founder and CEO of technology startup Brud and the creator of virtual pop star Miquela or Lil Miquela. Before creating Brud, he was known professionally as Yung Skeeter and worked as a DJ, pr ...
. The use of Miquela as a virtual musician has been compared to
Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...
and
Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official moe anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise bu ...
. In August 2017, Miquela released its first single, "Not Mine". The Miquela character has released several singles since its debut with "Not Mine", including "You Should be Alone", "Over You", "Right Back", and a collaboration with Baauer titled "Hate Me". It released two new singles on July 31 called "Money" and "Sleeping In".


Social impact

In June 2018, Miquela was named one of
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
’s 25 Most Influential People on the Internet along with fellow fashion peers DietPrada (duo composed of Lindsey Schuyler and Tony Liu) and celebrated musicians
Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...
and
BTS BTS (), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produ ...
.


See also

*
Virtual influencer A virtual influencer, at times described as a virtual persona or virtual model, is a computer-generated fictional character that can be used for a variety of marketing-related purposes, but most frequently for social media marketing, in lieu of hu ...


References


External links


Lil Miquela on Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miquela, Lil Virtual influencers Instagram accounts Fictional musicians