Virginia Fonseca

2016–2020: Career start and the ADR

In 2016, the then sixteen-year-old Virginia started filming her first YouTube videos. With her third video, in which she presents her brazilian funk playlist, she achieved the mark of 100,000 subscribers. The next year, having gone back to Brazil, she had a short and unsuccessful DJ career.^[12] Then, seeing as it wasn't going well, she was invited to make YouTube videos with the brazilian YouTuber Pedro Rezende.^[13]

Thanks to Rezende's already established fame, and her joining his agency, the ADR (short for Rezende's Alliance), Virginia's own visibility and popularity rose. It grew even more once the two announced that they were in a relationship. She also became a recurring guest in his videos, known for their challenges and games.^[14]

In 2020, Virginia ended her relationship with Rezende, being forced to pay a fine of 2 million brazilian reais, due to a breach of contract with his agency.^[15] In the same year, after revealing her new relationship with the brazilian country singer Zé Felipe, she became a model and dancer for his music videos: promoting, dancing and creating choreographies for them.^[16][17]

2021–2023: Notority and WePink

In 2021, after the announcement of her first pregnancy, Virginia became even more popular, thanks specially to an allegation that she had got pregnant for fame and money.^[18] In the same year, she had a cameo in her husband's song Tranquilita, but Virginia later revealed that she did not wish to follow a singing career.^[19]

Still in 2021, she founded 3 businesses: the advertising and publicity agency, Talismã Digital;^[20] the skin care and beauty products brand, WePink;^[21] and the aesthetic clinic SK Aesthetic. The last one being sold the following year for an unknown amount of money.^[22] In 2022, with the popularity gained by the birth of her second daughter, Virginia launched the children's cosmetics brand Maria's Baby by Virginia Fonseca.^{[23][failed verification]}

In 2023, Virginia was announced as employed by the Brazilian television network SBT.^[24]

2024–present: Sabadou com Virginia

On April 6, 2024, on her 25th birthday, Virginia premiered on television with her program Sabadou com Virginia (Saturday with Virginia).^[25] On debut, it won second place in a popularity poll by the Ibope and was SBT's most viewed program.^[26]

Fortune

According to Forbes, her brand registered a profit of 10 million Brazilian Reais in October 2021, only a month after launch.^[27] Her company was reported to have sold 110,000 perfume bottles in March 2023 alone, as reported by newspaper O Globo, reaching a profit of R$17 million three months after launch. Virginia herself claimed to gain R$500,000 per month, for a total of R$6,000,000 per year. The WePink company reportedly profited 168.5 million in 2022.^[28]

Makeup

In March 2023, a makeup foundation was launched by Virginia's brand WePink Beauty and it was severely criticised for false advertising.^[29] Virginia claimed that her makeup had "imported-product quality" and was a "dermomake",^[30] a type of makeup that unites beauty with skin care.^[31] To quote Virginia herself: "Our foundation takes care of the skin, and that's what's distinctive about it". However, a YouTube video by the beauty influencer Karen Bachini later revealed that the product was, in fact, registered as grade 1 by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa), thus, it's incapable of taking care of the skin due to its minimal level of vitamin E, hyaluronic acid and nicotinamide, all of which were claimed by Virginia to be of a higher amount.^[32][33]

The foundation was criticised for drying the skin, highlighting frown lines and nose exocrine glands, not being resistant to water, and, in some cases, for causing redness of the skin.^{[34][failed verification]} The marketing campaign was also criticised for devaluing brazilian products in favor of promoting Virginia's brand. The initial price of R$199 (about $36 US Dollars) was also put under critique, being subsequently altered.^[35] The brazilian YouTuber Felca made a video about the foundation that went viral due to the poor quality and usage of the product, "I will have nightmares" he claimed.^[36]

After the controversy, many similar cases emerged on social media. Virginia was accused of promoting a brand that used names and images for false advertising, offering a course that didn't accomplish what it had promised, and demanding money in exchange for pictures with fans.^[37]

Plagiarism and product scam

In October 2022, Virginia launched a baby focused hygiene brand with the trademark of Maria's Baby by Virginia Fonseca. For which she was accused of plagiarizing the name, visual identity and product labels of American entrepreneur Kylie Jenner's brand Kylie Baby by Kylie Jenner.^[38]

In 2023, Virginia launched a sunglasses collection with the brand By IK, but consumers reported that they hadn't received their product after their purchase.^[39]

Motherhood

In April 2023, a video of the couple's eldest daughter Maria Alice went viral on social media, being highly discussed by brazilian netizens. The journalist Evaristo Costa commented "The mother is the one who raises (the child)".^[40]

Virginia's husband, Zé Felipe filmed an answer video using offensive language against the journalist, who promptly apologised.^[41] The repercution of the video caused other controversies to resurge, for example the one over the marketing campaign that used the couple's 7-day-old daughter,^[42] one over the end of the breastfeeding period, the use of babysitters during an international trip, etc.^[43]

Television

Internet

Music videos

Theater