They have millions of followers on Instagram, appear in the pages of Vogue and Cosmopolitan and some of the world’s biggest fashion brands pay to work with them. The only problem is, they’re not real.
Welcome to the burgeoning industry of virtual influencers, computer-animated characters portrayed in real-life settings on social media sites. Their creators get paid thousands for every post they show of them wearing digital replicas of real clothes that fashion brands want to advertise.
