Shudu

Shudu (Shudu Gram) is a computer-generated model and social media personality, widely described as the world's first digital supermodel. She was created in April 2017 by the British fashion photographer and 3D artist Cameron-James Wilson, and her look draws largely on the 'Princess of South Africa' Barbie doll. Her Instagram account, which began with a bio reading only 'who is she', gathered tens of thousands of followers before it was widely known that she was not human. In February 2018 Rihanna's Fenty Beauty reposted an image of her wearing one of its lipsticks, which sent the account viral; Wilson then changed her bio to 'World's First Digital Supermodel' and told Harper's Bazaar she was 'my art piece'. Wilson later built The Diigitals, a Weymouth, UK studio that describes Shudu as its original digital supermodel and a Vogue cover star, and which lists Balmain, Louis Vuitton, Vogue and Samsung among its clients.

Shudu has also drawn sustained criticism, because she is depicted as a dark-skinned Black woman and was made by a white man. Refinery29 reported that critics objected that a white creator was profiting from the 'movement of dark skin models' without hiring or paying real Black models, and The New Yorker's Lauren Michele Jackson called her a white man's digital projection of Black womanhood. Wilson has said she represents and is inspired by real dark-skinned models. Her Instagram account is still active in 2026, at about 235,000 followers.