Miquela Sousa, also known as Lil Miquela, is a fictional character created in 2016 by Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou.
Initially, Miquela’s story was told through her Instagram account, and revolved around her work as a digital model and her clashes with other computer-generated characters while doing advertisements for various brands, especially fashion brands.
As a marketing tool, Miquela has been used to promote streetwear and high-end luxury brands such as Calvin Klein and Prada.
In just two years of launching her account, she has already attracted over a million followers, and as of February 2023, she has over 2.8 million Instagram followers.
origin
The fictional character Miquela is a teen and Instagram model from Downey, California. Her first post was published on April 23, 2016.
Rumor has it that the account is owned by British model Emily Bador, and although Bador has denied the claims, she has admitted that she bears a strong resemblance to Miquela.
In April 2018, Los Angeles startup Brud (led by Trevor McFedries) publicly announced that they were responsible for creating the character and Instagram account.
Storyline
In April 2018, a cloned persona named Bermuda allegedly “hacked” Miquela’s account, deleted all of her photos and replaced them with photos of Bermuda.
It was later revealed that Miquela and Bermuda were both fictional characters created by Trevor McFedries and Sara Decou of Brud.
They then started sharing photos of the two characters and the account was then again taken care of by Miquela’s team.
The story revolving around Miquela portrays her as a social justice advocate. As part of the storyline, in 2020, Miquela and her “human” partner chose to split up.
Fashion collaboration
Miquela has been photographed with many celebrities including Diplo, Molly Soda, Millie Bobby Brown, Nile Rogers, Shane Dawson, Samantha Urbani and Pablo Vittar.
She has also been “interviewed” or featured in various publications such as Refinery29, Vogue, Buzzfeed, V-Files, Nylon, The Guardian, Business of Fashion, and The Cut. In April 2018, she appeared on the cover of Highsnobiety magazine.
Miquela has also appeared in V and Paper magazines, and in February 2018 she was chosen to take over Prada’s Instagram account during Milan Fashion Week.
She also starred in a Calvin Klein campaign alongside Bella Hadid, with both models wearing animated outfits. Miquela also collaborated with Samsung.
In the same year, she was hired as a contributing arts editor at Dazed magazine. In 2020, Miquela made history when she signed with CAA, becoming the first digital avatar to sign with the talent agency and the company’s first virtual client.
At the time, it was revealed that WME had represented Miquela.
Discography
- Not mine
- over you
- You should be alone
- Hate Me
- Right Back
- Sleeping in
- money
- waste
- Automatic
- Speak Your Mind
- machine
- masterpiece
- Painful Feelings
