A seemingly youthful Japanese influencer has specialized in motorcycles and discussed them through social media channels like Twitter. But now it turns out: Behind the young woman is a 50-year-old man with a talent for editing photos.
Who is the influencer? On Twitter, a young-looking woman has been showing herself since 2019, posing with motorcycles in biker gear. The account azusagakuyuki now has 21,000 followers on Twitter.
There are photos of her with motorcycles, photos of landscapes, her food, pictures of her apparently holding an energy drink in front of the camera for money – a perfectly normal account of a Japanese influencer, one would think.
This was the suspicion: Some users noticed early on that something was off with the Twitter account, as the Daily Mail reports. Because in some reflections, the face of the influencer was not visible, but rather a completely different face.
50-year-old man with great hair transforms into young woman
This is what came out now: A Japanese TV crew tracked down the biker and found out: When the person on the motorcycle takes off the helmet, a man in his prime with long hair is revealed, not a young woman.
The Japanese man is named Zonggu, is 50 years old, and says he uses things like “FaceApp” to transform into a young, beautiful woman because no one wants to see “the old uncle.” He transformed into a woman to gain popularity and attract more reactions to his photos.
Fans had suspected before that photo editing was at play, but thought it was just “normal photo-shopping,” as is common on social media: A young woman wanted to make herself look more attractive.
Once Zonggu started posting as an influencer on Twitter, he apparently couldn’t stop.
The man says he enjoyed getting so many likes and retweets for his Photoshop skills, which he took as a compliment for his work. He liked being suddenly an internet celebrity.
This is how it is perceived: In fact, the account has grown since the true identity was revealed. Many are amazed at how well the man managed to appear as a young influencer.
Women are quoted saying: “This guy is prettier than me.”
The story of the beautiful influencer can be related to much in the online world. Anyone who navigates in MMORPGs will quickly notice that behind some attractive elves is a man hidden, and behind some burly warriors is a woman:
- Some men complain that women have it much easier to gain attention online because they already have an advantage due to their gender. For example, a streamer in Overwatch pretended to be a woman to prove that women receive more attention than men. This actually led to a long discussion in the community until Blizzard exposed him.
- Some women, on the other hand, complain that they are not taken seriously as gamers. Even when they achieve outstanding performances, it is said that the gamer is only successful because she is a woman.
