Abstract
Social media influencers have emerged as powerful agents steering consumer behavior, beauty ideals, and social norms. (Ekinci et al., 2024). This study investigates the impact of virtual influencers on Generation Z women’s body image and self-esteem (Jones, 2024). While prior research has examined the influence of human influencers, there remains limited understanding of how virtual influencers affect followers' psychological wellbeing, particularly in non-Western contexts, and to fill this gap, the current research endeavors to draw attention to the pressing topic of the impact of virtual influencers on their followers' wellbeing (Feijoo&Vizcaíno-Verdú, 2025). By integrating a feminist perspective, this study also considers how gendered social pressures and cultural expectations intersect with the globalized beauty ideals perpetuated on Instagram by social media influencers (Merino et al., 2024). This study will be using Social Comparison Theory to examine how differences between followers’ actual selves and their ideal selves, shaped by influencer content, affect both their self-perception and consumer behaviors, allowing for a combined analysis of social comparison marketing processes and internalized psychological impacts. (Taylor & Carlson, 2025). Social media platforms have evolved into powerful spaces for marketing and consumer engagement, driven largely by the presence and influence of social media influencers, and as Generation Z heavily rely on digital channels for information and entertainment, they are the main audience for social media influencers (Alsalloum & Gainous, 2025).