I. Opening

1. 1. Around 2017, I’m sure a few people in the audience are familiar with the name “Lil Miquela,” as her Instagram account quickly amassed followers and everyone was wondering, is Miquela a real person? Personally, I heard of Lil Miquela from a popular video from YouTuber, Shane Dawson, in 2017. I searched her up on Instagram and was immediately confused with her edited pictures and appearance. Was she a real person, but heavily edited? Was she completely fabricated? I had no idea. I was one of millions of people who have heard about her, who have been confused with her existence and her origins.
   2. Lil Miquela has been confirmed to be a CGI character created by a startup from Los Angeles led by Trevor McFedries. Since her popularization in 2017, Lil Miquela has appeared in luxurious brands such as Vogue, Prada, Calvin Klein, and many more. Her character has been on billboards in Times Square and, surprisingly, she has even released a few singles. Lil Miquela is a fabricated character created through CGI technology in order to become a “perfect” marketing tool, excellently shaped to a brand’s image and ideas.
   3. [Show edited Instagram pictures]

II. Body

A. Lil Miquela frames the civic because her character is inherently meant to be marketed to an audience.

1. 1. Virtual influencers are perfect for brands looking for a risk-free representative, because they are shaped by their own private company and have no controversial past.
   2. Lil Miquela’s Instagram account is “civic” due to the fact that her pictures and marketing is made for an audience to consume. Her profile frames the civic by marketing different brands to an audience and collaborating with different luxury brands and celebrities to spread a message about this certain brand. 
   3. [Show images of Instagram, amount of likes, followers, views]
   4. [Show luxury brand images]

B. The commonplaces embedded in Lil Miquela’s Instagram profile include the fact that almost everybody on Instagram edits their pictures to make themselves look more perfect.

1. 1. In the age of body positivity and acceptance, seeing Lil Miquela’s completely CGI face and body, millions of eyes are influenced by her looks and strive to look like something that is completely counterfeit.
   2. Lil Miquela’s character is responding to the almost absence of non-edited photos on social media. In an interview with Shane Dawson, Miquela responded with “Can you name one person on Instagram who doesn’t edit their photos?” when asked about her heavily edited photos.
   3. [Show Instagram comments]

C. Virtual influencers’ impact on a large audience has caused more engagement in a brand, which is changing the course of influencers for the future.

1. 1. With Lil Miquela’s Instagram blowing up, the popularization of virtual influencers has grown over time. Brands are more willing to pick up CGI models rather than real ones, due to the fact that the CGI models have no controversial past and the creators have total control of the image.
   2. A co-founder from The Goat Agency, a social media marketing agency, has said that “[Virtual influencers] can be available 24/7 and have a personality molded to be exactly what you want.” It has also been shown that virtual influencers have an engagement rate of about three times higher than a human influencer when it comes to social media marketing.

III. Conclusion

1. Miquela’s perfect face, body, and image shows to hold commonplaces on social media regarding editing and having a “perfect look.” Her creators generated her character to be a civic marketing tool that can have her image perfectly molded with a collaborating company in order to market a brand to a large number of consumers.
2. Lil Miquela frames the civic due to the fact that her pictures and marketing is made for an audience to consume. Millions across the world have been influenced by her brand marketing and appearance to the public, and her perfect looks have changed society and also caused many to look up to her aesthetics.

Around 2017, I’m sure many people are familiar with the name “Lil Miquela,” as her Instagram account quickly amassed followers and everyone was wondering, is Miquela a real person? Is she a real person who just heavily edits her photos? Is she completely fake? Who knows?

Miquela rapidly gained attention from the media and tons of theories were created regarding her origin and who Miquela really is and who created her. Speculation by thousands on the Internet had come up with explanations such as a “Sims marketing stunt” or a social experiment of some sort.

As shown in her Instagram page, her face is heavily edited and smoothed, her flyaways are always perfectly in place, and her body looks “perfect” in societies eyes. Simply scrolling down Miquela’s Instagram comments reveals hundreds of other users claiming that they want to look like her, be her, or just plain heart-eyes emojis.

The artists behind Lil Miquela’s model and Instagram account are Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou, and they challenged the market of real brand influencers by creating a CGI character that is by all means, perfect. Miquela has no dirty past or controversial tweets from years ago, she is simply a marketing tool that poses no risk to any brand that signs her.

Her account has accumulated over three million followers, and her posts gather millions of views. McFedries’s startup company, Brud, benefits from Miquela’s brand marketing by making millions of dollars in revenue by collaborating with a multitude of luxury brands such as Vogue, Prada, Calvin Klein, and many more.

Lil Miquela’s character is responding to the almost absence of non-edited photos on social media. In an interview with Shane Dawson, Miquela responded with “Can you name one person on Instagram who doesn’t edit their photos?” when asked about her heavily edited photos.

In the age of body positivity and acceptance, seeing Lil Miquela’s completely CGI face and body, millions of eyes are influenced by her looks and strive to look like something that is completely counterfeit.

With Lil Miquela’s Instagram blowing up, the popularization of virtual influencers has grown over time. Brands are more willing to pick up CGI models rather than real ones, due to the fact that the CGI models have no controversial past and the creators have total control of the image.

A co-founder from The Goat Agency, a social media marketing agency, has said that “[Virtual influencers] can be available 24/7 and have a personality molded to be exactly what you want.” It has also been shown that virtual influencers have an engagement rate of about three times higher than a human influencer when it comes to social media marketing.

Overall, Miquela’s Instagram has the same meaning for most people, which is that her body and image is a role model for what people want to look like. Her imperfections are almost non-existent with her smooth skin and beautiful body, which means many people would strive to look like her as proven in her Instagram comments.

The commonplaces embedded in Lil Miquela’s Instagram profile include the fact that almost everybody on Instagram edits their pictures to make themselves look more perfect. It is no secret that Miquela’s pictures look heavily smoothed, but simply scrolling through your peers’ Instagrams would cause you to notice that they either have a filter on the picture or tuned their waist a bit.

Lil Miquela’s Instagram account is “civic” due to the fact that her pictures and marketing is made for an audience to consume. Her profile frames the civic by marketing different brands to an audience and collaborating with different luxury brands and celebrities to spread a message about this certain brand.

Miquela’s perfect face, body, and image shows to hold commonplaces on social media regarding editing and having a “perfect look.” Her creators generated her character to be a civic marketing tool that can have her image perfectly molded with a collaborating company in order to market a brand to a large number of consumers.