| Virginia Fonseca | |
| Birth Name: | Virginia Pimenta da Fonseca Serrão Costa |
| Birth Date: | 6 April 1999 |
| Birth Place: | Danbury, Connecticut |
| Nationality: | Brazilian |
| Spouse: | Zé Felipe |
| Organization: |
|
| Channel Direct Url: | c/virginia |
| Channel Display Name: | Virgínia Fonseca |
| Years Active: | 2016–present |
| Subscribers: | +11.8 million |
| Subscriber Date: | 2024 |
| Views: | 1,5 billion |
| View Date: | 2024 |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Silver Year: | 2017 |
| Gold Year: | 2018 |
| Diamond Year: | 2021 |
Virginia Pimenta da Fonseca Serrão Costa[1] (Danbury, April 6, 1999), better known as Virginia Fonseca or just Virginia, is a Brazilian television presenter, entrepreneur and digital influencer.[2] [3]
Virginia was born on April 6, 1999, in Danbury, Connecticut. Her mother is brazilian but her father is a portuguese american.[4] When she was 3 years old the family moved to the brazilian city of Governador Valadares, the birthplace of Virginia's mother.
At the age of 16, the family moved again, this time to Portugal, where they lived for a year, before going back to Governador Valadares. At 18, Virginia moved to Londrina for work reasons,[5] before going to where she lives currently, Goiania.[6]
Virginia is a brazilian american of portuguese descent, but she revealed that even though she has US citizenship, she does not speak English and that she never wished to or went back to her country of origin, the United States, ever since moving to Brazil.[7]
After a 2-year-long relationship with the youtuber Pedro Rezende, Viriginia revealed her new relationship with singer Zé Felipe on June 27, 2020.[8] [9] On March 26, 2021, Felipe and Virginia got married during a private cerimony in his house.[10] She has three children with him: Maria Alice, born May 30, 2021;[11] Maria Flor, born October 22, 2022;[12] and José Leonardo, born September 8, 2024.[13]
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.[14] Then, seeing as it wasn't going well, she was invited to make youtube videos with the brazilian YouTuber Pedro Rezende.[15]
Thanks to Rezende's already estabilished fame, and her joing 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.[16]
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.[17] In the same year, after revealing her new relationship with the brazilian country singer Zé Felipe, she became a propaganda model and dancer for his music videos: promoting, dancing and creating coreographies for them.[18] [19]
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.[20] 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.[21]
Still in 2021, she founded 3 businesses: the advertising and publicity agency, Talismã Digital;[22] the skin care and beauty products brand, WePink;[23] and the aesthetic clinic SK Aesthetic. The last one being sold the following year for an unkown amount of money.[24] 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.[25]
In 2023, Virginia was announced as employed by the brazilian television network SBT.[26]
On April 6, 2024, on her 25th birthday, Virginia premiered on television with her program Sabadou com Virginia (Saturday with Virginia).[27] On debut, it won second place in a popularity poll by the Ibope and was SBT's most viewed program.[28]
According to Forbes, her brand registered a profit of 10 million Brazilian Reais in October 2021, only a month after launch.[29] 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.[30]
In March 2023, a makeup foundation was launched by Virginia's brand WePink Beauty and it was severely criticised for false advertising.[31] Virginia claimed that her makeup had "imported-product quality" and was a "dermomake",[32] a type of makeup that unites beauty with skin care.[33] 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.[34] [35]
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.[36] 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.[37] 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.[38]
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.[39]
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.[40]
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.[41]
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)".[42]
Virginia's husband, Zé Felipe filmed an answer video using offensive language against the journalist, who promptly apologised.[43] 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,[44] one over the end of the breastfeeding period, the use of babysitters during an international trip, etc.[45]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023–present | Teleton | Presenter | [46] |
| 2024–present | Sabadou com Virginia | [47] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–presente | Virgínia Fonseca | Herself | YouTube | [48] [49] |
| 2018–2020 | rezendeevil | [50] |
| Year | Title | Artist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | "Virgínia" | Zé Felipe | [51] |
| "Só Tem Eu" | [52] | ||
| 2021 | "Toma Toma Vapo Vapo" | Zé Felipe e MC Danny | [53] |
| "Bandido" | Zé Felipe e MC Mari | [54] | |
| "Tranquilita" | Zé Felipe e Virginia Fonseca | [55] [56] [57] | |
| 2022 | "Malvada" | Zé Felipe | [58] |
| "Onde Anda" | Calema e Zé Felipe | [59] | |
| "50 Cópias" | Zé Felipe | [60] | |
| 2023 | "Facilita Aí | [61] | |
| "Marrento" | [62] | ||
| "Summer" | [63] | ||
| "Vai Magrin" | Zé Felipe e MC Rica | ||
| "Vacilão" | Igow, Zé Felipe e Wesley Safadão | [64] |
| Year | Awards | Category | Nomination | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Brazilian Juvenile Awards | Digital revelation | Virginia Fonseca | [65] | |
| 2020 | Best TikToker | [66] [67] | |||
| Best Fitness Influencer | |||||
| Contigo! Online Awards | Couple of the year | Virginia Fonseca e Zé Felipe | [68] [69] | ||
| 2021 | iBest Award | Tiktoker of the Year (iBest Academy votes) | Virginia Fonseca | [70] | |
| Tiktoker of the Year (popular vote) | |||||
| Behavior and Family (popular vote) | |||||
| Meus Prêmios Nick | Challenger of the Year | [71] | |||
| Ship of the Year | Zé Felipe e Virginia | ||||
| Área Vip Award | Best Influencer | Virginia Fonseca | [72] | ||
| Cuteness of the Year | Maria | ||||
| Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro | Best Tiktoker | Virginia Fonseca | [73] | ||
| Youtuber of the Year | |||||
| Instagram Queen | |||||
| Favorite Channel | |||||
| I Ship It | Zé Felipe e Virginia | ||||
| Internet Trophy | Revelation of the Year | Virginia Fonseca | [74] | ||
| TikTok Awards | Musa das Trends | [75] [76] | |||
| MTV Miaw | MIAW Icon | [77] | |||
| Hitou no Passinho | [78] | ||||
| Feat. Nacional | Zé Felipe e Virginia Fonseca | [79] | |||
| [80] | ||||
| Prêmio Contigo | Online | Couple of the Year | [81] | ||
| Best Influencer | Virginia Fonseca | [82] | |||
| 2022 | Prêmio iBest | Comportamento e Família (voto popular) | Virginia Fonseca | [83] | |
| Instagrammer do Ano (voto popular) | |||||
| Tiktoker do Ano (voto popular) | |||||
| Tiktoker do Ano (voto academia iBest) | |||||
| Creator do Ano (voto popular) | |||||
| Podcast (voto popular) | PodCats (Camila Loures e Virginia Fonseca) | ||||
| Fandom Brasil (voto popular) | Virginia Fonseca | ||||
| Prêmio Área Vip | Melhor Influencer | [84] | |||
| Prêmio Contigo | Online | Casal do ano | Zé Felipe e Virginia Fonseca | ||
| Melhor Influenciador | Virginia Fonseca | ||||
| MTV Miaw | Podcast nosso de cada dia | PodCats (Camila Loures e Virginia Fonseca) | [85] | ||
| Hitou No Passinho | Virginia Fonseca | ||||
| Dupla de Milhões | Virginia e Zé Felipe | ||||
| People's Choice Awards | Influenciador Brasileiro do Ano | Virginia Fonseca | [86] [87] | ||
| Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro | Rainha do Insta | [88] | |||
| Youtuber do Ano | |||||
| Eu Shippo | Virlipe (Virginia e Zé Felipe) | ||||
| Meu Podcast Preferido | PodCats (Camila Loures e Virginia Fonseca) | ||||
| BreakTudoAwards | Instagrammer do Ano | Virginia Fonseca | [89] | ||
| 2023 | TikTok Awards | Surra de Beleza | |||
| Prêmio Jovem Brasileiro | Eu Shippo | Virginia e Zé Felipe | [90] | ||
| Rei/Rainha do Insta | Virginia Fonseca | ||||