
She knew the answer, but something about Miquela made her question what her eyes were telling her.Īt first glance, or swipe, Miquela could understandably be mistaken for a living, breathing person. “She’s not real, right?” Nikola asked me shyly.

The subject was Miquela Sousa, better known as Lil Miquela, a 19-year-old Brazilian-American model, musical artist, and influencer with over a million Instagram followers, who is computer-generated. Over lunch this spring, Nikola Burnett, a 15-year-old who always carries two cameras - one film and one digital - sat staring at an Instagram selfie, perplexed.
