Fake Famous

- It wasn't that long ago that in order to get away

from the hustle and bustle

and that never-ending grind of everyday life,

you'd get on a plane, fly somewhere warm--

like Los Angeles--

and spend a week bopping

from one tourist attraction to another:

the Hollywood sign,

strolling along Venice Beach,

admiring the architecture,

and zipping through the canyons and the coastlines

and taking in the sparkle of Tinseltown.

Now people get on a plane, fly to LA,

and go to a pink wall to take selfies.

In fact, that pink wall

is one of LA's top tourist destinations,

written about in everything from "Fodor's"

to "Travel + Leisure,"

and is cited on more lists of places

to snap an Instagram photo

than most tourist destinations on the entire planet.

People come here from all over the world

just to take a picture.

Families do it.

Locals do it.

You see these women?

They're from England, and they paid $2,000 each

to come here on an Instagram vacation

just to take a photo against a flat pink wall.

Why? What are they looking for?

That's easy.

They're looking for this:

likes,

which translates to more followers,

which is the current currency

of the most important thing on Earth today,

what everyone seems to be obsessed with.

They want to be famous.

Let me ask you a question.

It's a question that everyone has been asked

at one time or another.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

For decades, when researchers asked kids this,

the answer was often the same.

Today kids in America say

they want to be this

more than any other occupation on Earth...

Good morning from paradise.

I'm wearing a big sweater.

A famous influencer.

- Cheers, guys. - Cheers.

It's understandable.

Influencers lead a grand life.

- This is our first real day in Tulum.

- We're at the Victoria's Secret pre-party.

- Had a really fun night last night,

and then now we came to Purobeach.

- This is the new room for the next three days.

But is that actual fame?

Is that number--

that indicator of how many followers you have,

how many likes you get,

how many people comment on your post--

is that all real?

Good morning, guys.

I went to sleep realizing

I had 2 million followers last night.

- There are over 40 million people

who have over 1 million followers on Instagram.

Are they all famous?

There are over 100 million people

who have more than 100,000 followers.

Are they famous too?

If they are, how can over 140 million people--

the equivalent of almost half

of the population of the United States--

all be considered famous?

To find out, we want to do an experiment

to see if we can take some random people

with a tiny following online

and make them into famous influencers.

Now, we genuinely have no idea how this is going to play out.

Can we get someone to, say, 10,000 followers,

100,000, a million, even?

And if we can, will people look at them differently?

Will their life change for the better,

or are there unintended consequences

for the worse?

- You can take Chris, and you can take Sophia,

and you can take Sergio into the waiting room.

It's gonna be Chris, Sophia, then Sergio.

Chris, Sophia, Sergio.

Great. Thank you so much.

- To start, we put out a casting call

with one very simple question:

"Do you want to be famous?"

We got probably

around 4,000 submissions.

I take really cool pictures.

I surf. I snowboard.

- I've been a traveling nomadic yoga teacher.

- One of my goals is to visit all the national parks.

- Then we put together a panel of social media experts,

casting agents, and stylists

to help us narrow down our thousands of applicants

to just three people.

This is the day.

Your life is changing, girl.

I love you.

- Are you ready? - I am ready.

- Once we pick three people from this group,

we're going to try to make them famous

or at least appear that way.

- All right, everybody, this is Lo.

- Hi, Lo. - Hi, Lo!

- All right, could you just tell us

your name, where you're from,

and how many followers you have on Instagram

into the camera?

Yes. Hello.

My name is Lo Mardell.

I am from southeast Washington, D.C.,

and I have about 4,100 followers on Instagram.

- I'm from Overland Park, Kansas.

I'm from Juárez, Chihuahua.

- My name's Wylie, I'm from Atlanta, Georgia,

and I have 2,443 Instagram followers.

I counted. I checked.

I'm an assistant,

but my boss doesn't have a lot of boundaries.

I do, like, real estate stuff and personal stuff

and, like, gofer things.

Like, all the assistants have-- - Does he know you're here?

No, I called in sick.

- That's so funny. - What do you do for work?

- Right now, I'm just doing, like, modeling and acting.

I do modeling and acting.

I model and I act.

I act and I model.

- Can you tell me how many Instagram followers you have?

- I think I've got about 230 followers on Instagram.

- I currently have 1,100 followers.

13.2K.

- I don't know how many followers I got.

Who are your followers?

Thirsty men,

a lot of thirsty men.

- They want to see me half-naked or in a bikini.

What's your passion?

- Right now, I'm focusing on roller-skating.

- I am a princess on the weekends.

Well, hello, everyone.

It's so good to be here today.

My name is Cinderella.

- And would you like to be famous?

Absolutely.

Yes, I want to be famous.

I will be.

I wouldn't say "famous."

I want to just have a platform to where I can change the world

in the ways that I want to change it.

- I mean, I guess all my life,

I said I wanted to be famous, but at this point,

I don't even feel like I want to.

I feel like I deserve to, you know what I'm saying, so...

Why is that?

- 'Cause I need people to feel this.

I need people to feel what charisma and passion

is like in real life.

This ain't no act.

Like, all my life, I been the biggest outcast

in all situations,

like, high school, everything--

like, everything. - Mm-hmm.

- But I feel like I'm doing all of this stuff for a reason.

- I want to share with people, like,

"This kind of person exists in the world."

- Now's my chance to maybe be someone

that people look up to.

But I think I would be more authentic

on social media with a greater following

knowing that I'm reaching more people.

And how many hours a day

do you think you would spend on social media?

Phew. A lot.

A lot.

If I'm not working out,

I'm usually on social media,

just constantly scrolling.

- And what are you doing, exactly?

- Looking at people in bathing suits,