Meet Miquela

She has 780K (and counting) social media followers, wears Versace and loves Rihanna. She shares Instagram Stories, posts memes and campaigns for important causes. She’s also a passionate musician. But there’s just one thing...

She's not real. Say hello to Miquela Sousa, better known as 19-year-old @lilmiquela. Scroll through her Instagram feed and she could be just another social media influencer. Weekends are spent at the coolest LA hotspots, brunching at the city’s Amara Kitchen or campaigning for transgender rights. Her skin? Flawless. Her freckles? So perfectly placed they could have been drawn on. But look closely and you’ll see – she’s a computer-generated influencer.

In the Look office, our resounding reaction was how? Right now, she’s an internet phenomenon and there are theories. Some believe Miquela is a real woman – she posed in front of the Eiffel Tower, spends time at Venice Beach and has perfected her Instagram pose – but the image is doctored to make her into a computer-generated ‘character’. Others are certain that Miquela is a generated hand created image, superimposed into existing photographs. It kind of makes sense. In one image, Miquela is posing in front of a shop window, but her reflection is noticeably absent.