This Young Girl Is Actually a Guy in His 50s Playing With FaceApp

Almost nothing is what it seems on the internet these days, and this 53-year-old man posing as a woman in her 20s on social media is perfect proof of that.

If you’re familiar with FaceApp, you probably already know about its switch gender option, which lets you see what you would look like as the opposite gender. It’s all in good fun, but one Japanese male fan of the app has managed to build quite an impressive following on social media by transforming himself into an attractive, realistic-looking young girl. The 53-year-old man, who describes himself as “addicted to FaceApp”, spends his free time taking selfies, editing them and uploading them on his social media profiles.

Unlike the 50-year-old man we featured last month, who impersonated a young, attractive girl with the help of FaceApp for years without telling anyone, the protagonist of this story is actually up-front with his followers, letting them know in the bio that he is a man using editing technology to drastically alter his appearance.

“I’m an uncle in his 50s who usually works from home,” the man wrote on Instagram. “I’m addicted to FaceApp, and I’m uploading selfie photos with cute processing.”

Despite the man’s openness, when some of his photos went viral on Japanese social media earlier this month, people could not believe what their eyes were seeing. Some declared themselves disgusted, while others praised the man’s skills and his patience in figuring out all the settings on FaceApp to achieve this degree of realism.

From goofy uncles using advanced smartphone apps to completely change their appearance, to realistic-looking, AI-powered digital news anchors, and computer generated YouTubers, you just can’t trust your eyes online anymore.

The 53-year-old FaceApp addict started uploading photos on Instagram last summer, and he currently has over 13,000 followers there, plus another 7,100 on Twitter.