- Ariana Grande last year reached out to Paige Niemann, her popular TikTok lookalike, after tweeting that one of her videos was “bizarre.”
- Niemann has branded herself as a Grande lookalike, and in addition to her own viral TikTok videos, has appeared in popular YouTube videos with creators attempting to deceive their friends.
- Despite her more than 4.2 million followers, Niemann’s TikTok comments are full of angry posters that have also appeared on other social media accounts.
- Jaelee Greeson, a 17-year-old from Texas who happens to resemble Lana Del Rey, told Insider negative comments are commonplace as fans disagree about whether she looks like her supposed doppelgänger.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Billie Eilish, the 18-year-old “bad guy” singer has had it with her impersonators. First, the five-time Grammy Award winner at the end of December called attention to a person in Russia who was dressing up as her.
“This is not me y’all lmaooo,” she said.
About a month later, at the end of January, Eilish offered a more direct message to people who publicly dressed up as her following a YouTube creator’s decision to have someone perform a stunt while dressed as Eilish.
“Please stop doing this s—,” she said on Instagram.
"It is not safe for you and it is mean to the people who don't know any better you make me look bad," Eilish added.
For consumers of viral news, the story may have flown by as another forgettable celebrity headline, but the incident is just one example of a growing community of internet celebrity lookalikes.
Online celebrity impersonators have woven themselves into the influencer community.
Most TikTok users have probably come across Paige Niemann, even if her name doesn't ring a bell. The 15-year-old has amassed some 4.2 million followers on the platform. Even Ariana Grande has seen some of the TikTok star's videos.
TikTok is filled with teens and tweens who have found success in a formula that involves performing a handful of dances and mouthing the words to the popular sounds in the app's expansive library.
But Niemann has found another way to go viral. Her millions of followers know her best because of who she looks like: "Dangerous Woman" singer Ariana Grande. Even in videos where she's not imitating Grande exactly, she's often styled to look an awful lot like her.
Grande, who has an account on TikTok but has only posted once, back when it was still called Musical.ly, has even reached out to Niemann over her videos that often involve the 15-year-old donning Grande's signature ponytail and winged eyeliner.
She's recreated Grande's "thank u, next" album cover, mimicked other Grande album covers, and dressed up as Grande's iconic "Victorious" and "Sam & Cat" character, Cat Valentine.
http://instagr.am/p/B4aVzS0nbFS
"I started doing it for fun and now it's something that I do regularly, almost every day," Niemann, an avid Grande fan, told Entertainment Tonight last year, noting that it takes her over an hour to get her hair and makeup in a Grande-like fashion."
She said Grande reached out through a Direct Message last year and had nothing but love for her lookalike.
"She said, 'I'm flattered.' She wanted to let me know that I am beautiful in my own way and I said, 'Thank you and thank you for being so kind to me.' And she said, 'I'm proud of you.'"
"She reached out to me," Niemann said, according to Entertainment Tonight. "I was shocked. She's my idol so I was shaking a little bit…She said, 'Let me know if you're ever going to my Sweetener Tour, we can grab a hug.'"
Grande has also publicly acknowledged Niemann's videos outside her DMs. When a fan of the "sweetener" songstress shared one of Niemann's TikTok videos on Twitter, writing "I just know Ariana is terrified," Grande, who is more than ten years older than Niemann, chimed in.
"I just wonder whyyyy the cat voice / dialogue," she said. "i am sure she is the sweetest sweet sweetheart forreal !! but it's definitley[sic] bizarre seeing people blend the two worlds lmao."
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1198452831180615681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The 26-year-old former "Victorious" star has previously talked about how she has worked to distance herself from the persona she created as "Cat Valentine," the character she portrayed on the hit Nickelodeon shows.
In the video, Niemann looked more like present-day Grande, wearing her signature high pony, though she used audio from "Victorious," which may be the reason Grande said she thought the video was "bizarre."
But Grande's comments about that particular video has only seemed to further push her legion of fans, often called "Arianators," to direct angry comments toward the teen.
A recent TikTok video that shows Niemann dressed up and mouthing along as Grande's vocals play has received more than 1.6 million views in less than a week. It's racked up more than 300,000 likes too, though there are plenty of less-than-kind comments.
"We get it, you want to be ariana," one user wrote.
"I don't know, I'm starting to feel like this is more than just a fan 'cosplaying Ariana," another said.
"It's fine that it's a cosplay or whatever but once the person you're 'cosplaying' PUBLICLY says they're uncomfortable[sic], please stop. Respect her," another fan wrote, likely referencing Grande's November comment.
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@paigeniemann Who turned on the TV?!? { #catvalentine#samandcat #arianagrande#fyp #foryou#foryoupage #lookalike
Most comments on Niemann's videos echo similar sentiments, though she does have fans who defend her, and more sympathetic "Arianators" who weigh in.
"Y'all she's 15 an there's so many kinds who cosplay like she does," one said. "Y'all over exaggerating she's not hurting anyone."
But the negative comments directed toward Niemann have extended beyond TikTok, showing a dark side that, while prevalent among many influencing communities, seems prolific among influencers whose brand revolves around their likeness to celebrities.
"Paige Niemann ... wherever u are ... STOP," one person tweeted February 2. "Just PLEASE STOP. be your own person PLEASE."
But Ariana's lookalike, who has amassed some 37.3 million likes on TikTok and did not respond to Insider's requests for an interview, hasn't shown signs of stopping despite the criticism.
Niemann has taken her Grande impression across the internet
In a video posted by Marcus and Lucas Dobre, Niemann plays along as Lucas "pranks" his girlfriend, Ivanita Lomeli. Near the 11-minute mark, titled, "Surprising My Girlfriend With ARIANA GRANDE!," the Dobre brothers appear to prank Lomeli, though it also feels as if they're trying to pull one over on their viewers, too.
The brothers explain that they'll be "surprising" Lomeli with Grande, spending the beginning of the video plotting how to go about orchestrating the surprise before "Grande" arrives. Eventually, they lead Lomeli down a flight of stairs to a woman, who at this point, viewers are led to believe is Grande.
The woman, of course, is not 26-year-old Grande, but is 15-year-old Niemann.
More than eight minutes into the video, the big reveal occurs. The brothers explain to the camera that the woman is not actually Grande. Lomeli, who still is supposedly unaware of her boyfriend's prank, sits inside the backseat of a red SUV with Niemann.
About a minute later, the brothers open the car door, Lomeli and Niemann exit, and the jig is finally up.
"So this is a prank, I'm actually Paige," Niemann said.
"You're not actually Ariana Grande?" Lomeli flatly responded, seeming unphased by the news (particularly compared to her reaction when she thought she met Grande earlier in the video).
"No, I'm sorry," Niemann admits.
"But you look exactly like her," Lomeli says, which, of course, she does.
"You know what," Lomeli adds a few seconds later. "I'm not upset or anything. I'm actually really happy now, 'cause it's the true you now. Now I actually have a friend. I've never had a friend."
The Dobre brothers did not respond to an Insider request to talk about the video.
The TikTok-famous Grande lookalike has made several appearances in similar videos posted to YouTube by other creators who also claim they have attempted to trick friends into thinking they've met Grande.
YouTube creator Brent Rivera, 22, pranked his friend with Niemann's assistance, though unlike the video from the Dobre brothers, it's clear to viewers from the onset that the 15-year-old is not actually Grande. FaZe Rug, 23, posted a similar video that depicted him "tricking" his friends with Niemann's help, though he, too, lets viewers in on the ploy early on - about 40 seconds into the video.
The videos seem to be a hit among the respective creators' fans. The Dobre brothers' video has more than 3.2 million views, FaZe Rug's video has more than 4 million, and Rivera (who posted his about a month before the others) has racked up nearly 10 million views on YouTube.
Comments on the videos range from disbelief that someone could actually believe Niemann was Grande to outright anger toward the 15-year-old.
"She's trying to talk and sound like Ariana Grande too lol I knew it wasn't her right when I saw her," one wrote on Rug's video.
"This actually makes me so uncomfortable it's crazy," one wrote below Rivera's.
"She has to get her own personality, ariana doesn't think this is cute, or funny," another wrote below Marcus and Lucas Dobre's video.
Others were more supportive, noting that Niemann was 15, and marveling at how much she resembled the former "Scream Queens" actress.
It's not just Niemann, others lookalikes face the wrath of devoted fans
Jaelee Greeson knows all too well how cruel the internet can be if you look like a celebrity. Greeson, who bares a striking resemblance to indie-pop songstress Lana Del Rey, said she's received backlash for her videos about her resemblance to the "Video Games" singer.
"I don't ever try to say flat out 'I look like Lana Del Rey,' or 'I am Lana Del Rey's twin, because there has been a lot of backlash about it, and I try to not make any Lana stans upset by that, even though they get upset anyways," Greeson told Insider.
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@jaeleelovesbread day 1 of taking advantage of the fact that I kinda look likeLana del Rey #lanadelrey #greenscreen #fyp #comedy#foryoupage #
The 17-year-old from Texas said people in public have often told her she resembles the 34-year-old singer, who does not have a TikTok account (though her music is popular among its users), and when she saw another celebrity lookalike video on TikTok (not Niemann's, who she said she was unfamiliar with), she decided to give it a go.
She'd been posting other content to TikTok unrelated to the uncanny resemblance, but none of it ever did that well on the social-networking app, she said. TikTok relies heavily on its "For You" page, an aggregated feed created by an algorithm that delivers content tailored to its users.
"I didn't get any attention to my page until I put my Lana videos up," Greeson, who said her first since-deleted Lana video wasn't all that popular, but a second video where she recreated a photo of the singer drinking green tea went viral, added. "And now, those are the only videos that I put up that get attention."
Despite mostly-positive comments, and shocked reactions from new viewers stumbling on her videos from the app's FYP, Greeson said she receives negative comments on TikTok daily, though she says they don't bother her for the most part.
"What did upset me, though, is some people took it to Twitter - like it went so far as Lana's fans were posting on Twitter about me being conceited, saying that I think I'm a big hot shot, thinking I look like Lana when I really don't - using my personal traits to attack me," Greenson said.
thoughts? pic.twitter.com/CL02Eb9407
— ❀ alexandra ❀ (@electras_froot) January 9, 2020
In a video of Greeson downloaded from TikTok and posted to Twitter, fans of Del Rey debated whether she actually looked like the 34-year-old.
"Someone lied to her," one user wrote, speculating that Greeson intentionally does her makeup to look more like Del Rey.
"I don't really see any resemblance except the hair and maybe the eyes," another wrote.
Others said they could see it.
"I mean she kinda reminds me of her in the first look," one wrote.
"I was just born the way I am, and that sounds kinda silly," Greeson, who admitted she isn't a huge fan of Del Rey, said. "But I didn't really come into this world being like 'I wanna look like Lana Del Rey.'"
Still, Greeson, who often posts TikTok videos unrelated to her notable resemblance, says she doesn't try to look like Del Rey outside of her TikTok videos and said she never wants to cross a line.
"I think that people take it so far, as to go through a celebrity's routine - looking like them. I do think It can go too far, definitely," Greeson said.
"It's just for TikTok, It's just for fun," she added. "It's just a hobby, and not to take it too seriously."
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