Jessica Roberts

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If it Looks Like a Human and Acts Like a Human, it

Might Just be Lil Miquela: The Rise and Impact of
CGI Instagram Influencers

“It used to be that real-looking fake humans were confined to Disney parks, movies, music
videos, or video games. We could turn them off or leave them behind. Now they occupy
spaces once reserved for real-life people experiencing real-life things” (The Cut, 2018). The
real-looking fake human in question here is Miquela Sousa, known chiefly by her
Instagram name “Lil Miquela”. Lil Miquela is more than just a real-looking fake human
though, she is a CGI (computer generated imagery), or digitally created hyper-realistic
human to put it simply, that has also attained the status of an ‘influencer’ who has over one
million Instagram followers.

In analysing the revelations that surround this phenomenon of CGI influencers, I argue that
this case study of Lil Miquela demonstrates social media concepts regarding identity as
performative as well as the concept of the influencer. Following on from this analysis,
beyond its original scope and beyond this case study, the potential wider impact this
phenomenon and its complications have for human influencers, brands and also the Federal
Trade Commission will be addressed.

This case was first brought to my attention in January of 2017 when YouTuber Shane
Dawson covered it in a conspiracy video titled “Celebrity Conspiracy Theories”, trying to
uncover the mystery behind her identity. It wasn’t until over a year later when I came
across two recent articles that I realised the significance of this situation. One article was by
Wired (2018) and titled “CGI influencers like Lil Miquela are about to flood your feeds”,
and the other was by The Cut (2018) titled “Body Con Job: Miquela Sousa has over 1 million
followers on Instagram and was recently hacked by a Trump troll. But she isn’t real.”
Although the creators of Lil Miquela have been revealed as the company Brud, “a group in
Los Angeles specialising in robotics, artificial intelligence and their applications to media
businesses” (Brud Website), the motive behind Lil Miquela’s creation is still unknown.
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Despite this, there is much her presence reveals in a world that is dominated by social media,
which is why I was drawn to it. Lil Miquela merges the worlds of identity, technology,
consumerism and social media marketing, strong interests of mine, in a way that is very new,
current and thought-provoking.

This merge becomes prevalent when undertaking an analysis of how Lil Miquela illustrates
the concept of identity as being performative. Identity is, as Marwick (2013, p. 356) states,
“flexible and changeable, something that can be socially constructed in tandem with the
people around us rather than being biologically essential”. This case illustrates this as Lil
Miquela is not only a socially constructed identity, but a completely fictional and mass media
constructed virtual identity. It is not another facet or representation of any biological human
in particular, but a completely new identity.

As a CGI, her identity and lifestyle as an ‘it girl’ appear seemingly real due to her
performances and portrayals in her Instagram photos. As The Cut (2018) notes, “she wears
real-life clothes by streetwear brands like Supreme and luxury labels like Chanel”. This
supports Marwick’s (2013, p. 357) view that people use mass media combined with
consumer goods, symbolic markers, to construct and present an identity. She further
supports this identity by “hanging out with real-life musicians, artists, and influencers in
real-life trendy restaurants in New York and Los Angeles” (The Cut, 2018), along with her
pop-culture interests such as Beyoncé and Coachella, as evidenced in Screenshot 1.
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Screenshot 1

Another facet to her identity is her crafting of a strong “social identity” (Marwick 2013, p.
355), this side of herself being “used tactically for activism or politics” (Marwick 2013, p.
362). As Wired (2018) makes clear, this is apparent in her support of certain campaigns and
groups of people, using her power for good to “encourage her followers to donate to Black
Girls Code and be better allies to transgender people”. This positions Lil Miquela as a very
aware member of society, someone who understands that structural oppression still exists in
most social contexts and wants to do something about it, as is further evidenced in Screenshot
2.
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Screenshot 2

With the digitised portrayal of a dream life, Lil Miquela now has over one million follows on
Instagram and the status of an influencer. Influencers are, as Abidin (2015, p. 3) makes clear,
“everyday, ordinary Internet users who accumulate a relatively large following on blogs and
social media through the textual and visual narration of their personal lives and lifestyles,
engage with their following in “digital” and “physical” spaces, and monetize their following”.
Lil Miquela is just this, a CGI influencer with “serious money-making potential” as Wired
(2018) makes clear. Wired (2018) followed this statement up with the fact that Lil Miquela
has already partnered with Prada for one of their fashion shows, and which can be seen in
Screenshot 3.
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Screenshot 3

This case furthermore illustrates the concept of the influencer because although it alters the
scope of the phenomenon of the traditional human Instagram influencer via new
technological practices, this new use of CGI essentially encompasses the same thing. Lil
Miquela ultimately still brings into question the already complicated issue of authenticity that
is currently involved in human influencing as a whole. This revolves around what is
acceptable in terms of the ways in which people are influenced, and by who. Just like how
people question traditional Instagram influencers in their promotion of products they don’t
even use or stand by, the same can be said about CGI influencers, as the products, close and
brands they promote and work with are unable to be tested by this influencer. This can be
witnessed in Lil Miquela’s very recent partnering with Outdoor Voices in promoting their
tennis dress as pictured in Screenshot 4. Ultimately, Lil Miquela is an unreliable source who
parallels human influencers in some circumstances.
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Screenshot 4

It is in an illustration of the concept of the influencer that the main impacts of CGI
influencers surface. This phenomenon would definitely impact the Federal Trade
Commission. This is the regulatory body who makes the rules regarding fair advertising on
Instagram, stating that advertisements and paid content need to be made aware to their
audience with the use of #ad or #sponsored as Wired (2018) enlightens. With CGI influencers
though, there is a grey area as the use of advertising by non-human influencers is not covered.
Wired (2018) is also unsure as to how these two areas would intersect, stating “it’s not clear
how those rules would apply to influencers who aren't human, and whose backers, like Lil
Miquela’s, are shrouding themselves in mystery”. The issue of who would be held
accountable then comes into play.

These issues would also matter to the human influencers today who currently dominate this
market, as this is their market and ultimately their job that is being affected here by CGI
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influencers moving into their territory. Using CGI influencers could prove to be a better
strategy for marketers as “they’re much easier to control” (Wired 2018).

Apart from analysing the illustrations present in this case study of Lil Miquela, by examining
the comparative potential that this case study possesses can also further our understanding of
this phenomenon and its relationship to other spheres in the world. Two comparisons that
could prove relevant are the perceptions of hyper-realistic humans across platforms other than
Instagram, and how these CGI influencers exist across different racial lines. A cross platform
comparison could offer up alternative ideas surrounding the acceptance of hyper-realistic
humans on a broader sphere in our everyday life, a type of hyper-realism that might include
more than an image being portrayed. In terms of race, it would also be interesting to see
perspectives on the racialisation of CGI influencers in terms of what is considered acceptable
and by whom when creating a fake digital identity.

In looking for possible case studies that fit my first comparison, the terms I entered google
consisted of “digital humans Asia”, as when “digital humans” was searched, it presented me
with articles predominantly surrounding Lil Miquela, so a geographic differentiator was
added. Although this was still quite broad, it did present me with an interesting case study
about Google’s new digital assistant sounding so real and natural in its conversations that it
was raising questions to do with ethics and possible deception. In looking at this from a social
media aspect though, the next step could possibly be searching for people’s reactions to this
technology, comparing visual hyper-realism such as Lil Miquela, to voice hyper-realism.

For the second comparison, I entered the terms “CGI influencers race” which brought to my
attention Shudu, the black CGI Instagram model. From the results I saw, it seemed the focus
here was on issues surrounding her creation by a white photographer, and questions to do
with racial objectification and exploitation that Lil Miquela never raised. The fear of Lil
Miquela taking away jobs from real influencers is heightened in the case of Shudu as was
obvious from article titles. From what I could gather from the headlines, not only is Shudu
taking away opportunities and jobs from other influencers and models, but she is taking away
opportunities from real people of colour who are already fighting to be recognised in these
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spaces. This was an extremely interesting find for me, and one which I am going to further
look into, as well as look for other perspectives on Shudu for future use.

The case of Lil Miquela, as has become evident, has the potential to be studied from a range
of different perspectives that bring other concepts into play too, not just those surrounding
identity, influencers and peer surveillance. The concept of visual culture in terms of
conception and action also could have yielded interesting results in this scenario. Looking at
this in terms of what we think about seeing CGI influencers and what this thinking then leads
us to do would be interesting to examine but could have similar findings in some regards to
the concepts of the influencer as well as peer surveillance.

Overall, there was much to learn from undertaking this study surrounding just how Lil
Miquela, a CGI influencer, illustrates the concepts of identity and the influencer. It became
evident just how much this hyper-realistic digital human encompasses very relevant and
current issues focussing on authenticity and identity and how they are presented in the
performative and scrutinising nature of social media platforms. These are matters that have
existed traditionally with just humans themselves but, as become clear, are now being
extended to this new realm of digital humans, causing one to further question, but also
extend, these ideals.

References:

Abidin, C. (2016). ““Aren’t These Just Young, Rich Women Doing Vain Things Online?”:
Influencer Selfies as Subversive Frivolity”. Society Media + Society, pp. 1-17.

The Cut. (2018). “Body Con Job: Miquela Sousa has over 1 million followers on Instagram
and was recently hacked by a Trump troll. But she isn’t real”.
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https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/lil-miquela-digital-avatar-instagram-influencer.html
accessed on “May 10, 2018”.

Elias, AS, Gill, R. (2018). “Beauty surveillance: The digital self-monitoring cultures of
neoliberalism”. European Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 59-77.

Marder, B, Joinson, A, Shankar, A & Houghton, D. (2016). “The extended ‘chilling’ effect of
Facebook: The cold reality of ubiquitous social networking”. Computers in Human Behavior,
vol. 60, pp. 582-592.

Marwick, A. (2013). “Online Identity.” In Hartley, J., Burgess, J. & Bruns, A. (eds),
fCompanion to New Media Dynamics. Blackwell Companions to Cultural Studies. Malden,
MA: Blackwell, pp. 355-364.

Wired. (2018). “CGI influencers like Lil Miquela are about to flood your feeds”.
https://www.wired.com/story/lil-miquela-digital-humans/ accessed on “May 10, 2018”.