Kami is a pioneer in the social and influencer space. She is not only the first virtual influencer with Down Syndrome, but she's also the only virtual human created and run by the community it represents. Not only that, Kami has become a vehicle of revenue for her charity and a tool for young women with disabilities to interact in the virtual space.

As the digital and social culture changes and we move closer to virtual representation, Kami plays an important role in shaping what the future of inclusion looks like across social platforms and virtual worlds.

The global investment into the metaverse doubled to $120 billion in 2022. Central to this is the rise of virtual influencers who are fast dominating the face of digital. The web3 culture was theoretically building a world for everyone, yet out of the 200+ virtual influencers on Instagram, not a single one represented the disability community. These "ideal" virtual humans removed any perceived "flaws", and reinforced unrealistic beauty standards, leading to the reduced visibility of disabilities in the digital realm.

As a charity dedicated to enriching the lives of people with Down Syndrome, Down Syndrome International saw that increasingly more of their beneficiary's time was spent in the digital realm, yet there was very little visibility of people with disabilities or Down Syndrome there. DSI saw an opportunity to drive awareness and relevance with young people globally, and change the digital landscape to make it inclusive for the next generation.

Young women with Down Syndrome already statistically have lower self-esteem, and spend on average up to nine hours a day online. As their lives become increasingly more intertwined with virtual worlds, the digital landscape impacts their lives immensely. With the rise of virtual influencers, pixel-perfect faces and bodies have become the norm on almost every mainstream social platform. Since virtual influencers are completely man-made through 3D programming, much of what society considers to be flaws are removed. These "ideal" virtual humans reinforce harmful and unrealistic beauty standards, and lead to the reduced visibility of disabilities in the digital realm.

Kami has made the digital landscape more inclusive for the next generation of young women with Down Syndrome. It was vitally important to set the example of how people with Down Syndrome could show up authentically in the virtual world, and that Down Syndrome is not a flaw and should never be erased. Kami does that, becoming a tool through which young women with DS can interact with the digital world.

The solution was Kami - the world's first virtual influencer with Down Syndrome. To ensure Kami was authentic to the group of people she represented, every part of her design and story was co-created by a group of 100 young women with Down Syndrome from 16 different countries. Machine learning merged their faces to create Kami's, her body was made accurate to a real woman's proportions, her voice and captions are written from real women's quotes. This collective also decides where Kami should go and what she should do. Real-life global Down Syndrome influencer Ellie Goldstien lead the project as Executive Producer.

Kami's mission is to make the virtual world more inclusive, by showing up in digital culture's most important spaces and events, where the Down Syndrome community were never previously represented.

Kami was launched on the platform where virtual influencers are most prevalent - Instagram. Kami's existence subverted the culture of pixel-perfect virtual influencers, provoking conversation around the future of inclusivity and diversity in virtual worlds and social platforms.

As an influencer, Kami was able to be a voice for not just one woman, but many women in the Down Syndrome community, amplifying their perspectives and ideas to a broader audience that may not have been accessible on their own. The majority of women in Kami’s collective feel unsafe using social platforms on their own as they are often targeted with cyber bullying, abuse and scams. But because Kami’s account is overseen by community managers, all inappropriate dialogue is removed, making it a safe place for these young women to interact with others and contribute to the ever-growing digital culture.

After Kami's launch on Instagram in May, she began a virtual world tour, touching down in a diverse spread of digital places where the Down Syndrome community had never been represented. Kami was the guest of honour and first model with a disability appearing at Brazil Immersive Fashion Week 2022. She featured on the Defeating Disability podcast, became an NFT, collaborated with world renowned virtual fashion house Studio Acci to create the first virtual fashion line designed by young people with Down Syndrome, created the first "pocket-metaverse" dedicated to Down Syndrome awareness together with Vogue photographer Gabriel DeSante. On Instagram, she spotlighted talented individuals with Down Syndrome, like artist Charlie French and 3D designer Sam Goodyear.

As Kami spread her message of inclusion, her influence grew across multiple social and digital platforms, becoming the voice of the Down Syndrome community in the virtual world.

- 1 of 35 verified virtual influencers on Instagram, first virtual influencer with a disability to be verified

- Inducted as an official virtual human on VirtualHumans.org

- Pioneered a new model for running virtual influencers where by the virtual human is created and run by the community they represent

- Used as a best practice case study for Meta's "Ethics of Virtual Influencers" Guidelines

- Shared in 16 different languages organically on Instagram

- 10M US in earned media, featured in Newsweek, The Daily Mail, Dazed Beauty, Elle, Models of Diversity, The Unseen Beauty, Editor's Pick on AdAge.

- Created a long-term working partnership with DSA Singapore for paid work for Down Syndrome models

- 20k USD work contract with Down Syndrome model Ellie Goldstien

- Content generated by Kami organically by globally recognised influencers like @shudu.gram (239k), @grace_strobel (116k), and @elliejg16_zebedeemodel (85.4k).