Lots of women evidently like looking at middle-aged Instagram/TikTok/YouTube “influencers” who have managed to stay young and trim. One influencer’s secret? Not existing.
About two months ago, I started following Isabelle Santos, she goes by @IsabelleSantos55 on Instagram. She is also on Facebook. She has a cool 133,000 Instagram followers and another 55,000 on Facebook. Familiar names started popping up in her likes and followers. Chelsea Handler liked this post.
That wouldn’t be a selling point to me.
Menopause expert Tamsen Fadal follows her. Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Berry Fairchild is in the mix.
I remember thinking, “Well…if all these smart, credible people are in her orbit, and her glow-up is this insane, I need to know what she’s doing.” Because Isabelle looked ridiculously good for a 57-year-old woman. It was exactly the kind of transformation Instagram knows women our age can’t stop staring at.
Then there’s the backstory. Isabelle was apparently married to an “asshole” and a “cheater.” She uses these words often to describe her ex-husband. I can relate. The details are never really explained, but the implication is clear: the divorce set her free, she found herself again, lost 80 pounds, and never looked back. Now she is hot as f*ck.
She’s half French, half Filipino, and lives somewhere in Los Angeles. Over the last two years she’s supposedly lost 80 pounds, developed abs, acquired the jawline of a Marvel superhero, and somehow ended up with better skin than I had at 37. The woman appears to be aging in reverse.
She’s the exact age, the exact look, and the exact backstory the algorithm knows will stop a midlife woman mid-scroll. Then again, Isabelle is so gorgeous she could probably stop anyone.
Naturally, I wanted to know her secret.
And according to Isabelle, the secret isn’t surgery. It isn’t HRT. It isn’t a GLP-1. It’s NMN, magnesium, and a probiotic. Conveniently linked in her Glow Up Guide and, of course, on Amazon.
The Catch Is…Isabelle Isn’t Real
Like nearly every successful influencer, Isabelle has mastered the algorithm. Almost every Reel goes viral. Some have hundreds of comments. Others have thousands. Most of them have hundreds of thousands of views. Which, as it turns out, isn’t an accident, it’s by design.
And somehow, Instagram doesn’t think it’s important to tell you that Isabelle isn’t actually a real person.
I commented “GLOW,” “REVERSE,” and whatever other incantation the algorithm demanded so I could get her “routine.” It turned out to be little more than a link to Pure Health Max NMN on Amazon. I’m intentionally not linking it here because they’ve already had enough of my clicks.
I tried contacting Isabelle through Instagram, Facebook, and email. Every reply was automated. Which, in hindsight, makes perfect sense. It’s hard to get a personal response from someone who doesn’t exist.
Thousands of women are taking anti-aging and weight-loss advice from a fictional woman who will never wrinkle, gain weight, or go through menopause.
“Isabelle isn’t unique. She’s part of an entire army of AI wellness women in their 50s and 60s.”
I’m sure I don’t follow any bots on Instagram because I don’t use Instagram. (I briefly tried using it for science fiction book collecting content. But every time their algorithm suggested some “popular influencer” for my feed I merely blocked them. After a few weeks Instagram killed my account because it said I was “violating site rules” or something.)
But I keep running into more and more AI-generated content, even when I’m not looking for. Facebook keeps adding AI dog videos to the Shorts it shows me (which is only on the iPhone version of the app).
It’s becoming easier and easier to create videos of fake people, and harder and harder to detect them. You have to be extra-diligent to keep them out of your feed, especially if they confirm your preexisting opinions. Caveat spectator.
(Hat tip: Director Blue.)
Tags: AI, Chelsea Handler, Instagram, technology