This 'imperfect' virtual influencer is challenging beauty standards in China

Typical influencers might clap back with a comment, but Angie is not a typical influencer - she's not even a real person. Angie is the creation of Jesse Zhang, director of a Shenzhen-based CGI animation company. Angie offers a refreshing alternative, her fans say, in a country where demand for plastic surgery is surging and beauty apps compete to create filters that show users more beautiful versions of themselves. Angie is the creation of Jesse Zhang, the director of a Shenzhen-based CGI animation company. Angie started taking shape in July 2020, and within three months Zhang had posted his character's first video to Douyin. "Some fans will also invite me to talk about things in life - they're in a predicament, or they encounter some difficulties," said Zhang said, who responds to comments as Angie in his free time each day. "The reason why I like her is that Angie is more realistic than many people who are actually real," one of her followers Xiao Qi, a millennial living in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, told CNN. "She gives the impetuous world a touch of beauty."