Miquela

Miquela Sousa, also called Lil Miquela, or known mononymously by the stage name Miquela, is a fictional American character, singer and social media personality created by Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou.^[1] The character was created as a 20-year-old girl of Brazilian-American heritage. The character began in 2016 as an Instagram profile that 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.^[2] Miquela has been featured in product endorsements for streetwear and luxury brands such as Calvin Klein and Prada. The account gained more than a million followers within its first two years.^[3]

The fictional character is a teenage Instagram model from Downey, California.^[4] Her 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.^[5] In April 2018, a second, similar character known as Bermuda "hacked" into the Miquela account, deleted all photos of Miquela and replaced them with photos of the Bermuda character. Miquela and Bermuda were then revealed to both be characters created by Brud, a Los Angeles-based startup led by McFedries and Decou.^[6]

The character has been pictured with a number of celebrities including Diplo,^[7] Molly Soda,^[8] Millie Bobby Brown,^[9] Nile Rodgers,^[10] Samantha Urbani,^[11] 50 Cent, Tracee Ellis Ross and Pabllo Vittar.^[12] She has been interviewed in a number of publications including Refinery29,^[13] Vogue,^[14] BuzzFeed,^[15] Nylon,^[16] The Guardian,^[17] Business of Fashion,^[18] and The Cut.^[1] She appeared on the cover of Highsnobiety in April 2018.^[19] She has also been featured in the magazines Paper and V.^[20][21] During 2019 Coachella, Miquela interviewed Colombian singer J Balvin, and took a picture with Spanish singer Rosalía.^[22][23]

In 2020, Miquela "consciously uncoupled" from her "human" boyfriend as a part of the storyline.^[1]

In February 2018, the character did an Instagram takeover for Prada as part of Milan Fashion Week.^[24] On May 16, she did a Calvin Klein ad with Bella Hadid, in which both were animated, in addition to a collaboration with Samsung.^[25][26] That year, Miquela was hired as a contributing arts editor to the magazine Dazed.^[27] 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.^[28][29] It was discovered at the time that Miquela had previously been represented by WME.^[28]

After Miquela appeared on a Calvin Klein commercial kissing the real celebrity Bella Hadid in May 2019, they received backlash after kissing in the video, being accused of using their sexuality to artificially increase their views.^[25] In December 2019, the fictional character described "her" sexual assault on YouTube.^[30][31] American singer Kehlani called out Miquela on Twitter for being "ignorantly offensive".^[32] This aspect of her backstory positioned the Miquela character as a social justice activist, which generated criticism given her use as a marketing tool.^[33]

Trevor McFedries, a cofounder of Brud, is a music producer and DJed known as Yung Skeeter.^[1] The use of Miquela as a virtual musician has been compared to Gorillaz and Hatsune Miku.^[4] In August 2017, Miquela released its first single, "Not Mine".^[34] 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".

In June 2018, Miquela was named one of Time’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 and BTS.^[35]

• Aitana López
• Virtual influencer

• Lil Miquela on Instagram