There is never a dull moment on the beauty side of TikTok it seems, and Mikayla Nogueira seems to be no exception. Perhaps you stumbled upon the ex-Ulta Beauty employee during the OG quarantine for her makeup tutorials, followed her for all her body positivity content, or recently learned about her from her fake lashes controversy. But now, the internet thinks she’s faking something else: her accent. Her Campus reached out to Nogueira’s team for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Over the past three years, Nogueira has grown in popularity, gaining over 14.6M followers on TikTok and 2.6M on Instagram. Essentially she is your one-stop-shop for all things makeup. From attending star-studded red carpets, dropping exclusive collaborations with top makeup brands, and hanging out with huge stars (like Selena Gomez, Alicia Keys, and Rihanna, NBD) to celebrate their respective skincare and makeup lines, Nogueria is a true rags-to-riches story on how hard work and perseverance can get you anywhere.
The Mikayla Nogueira Accent Drama
What fans really love about Nogueira, and what makes her different, is the way she speaks. It’s no secret this gal has a thick Boston accent, but what if I told you that TikTok isn’t exactly buying it? In a video posted on Feb. 27, a user included a clip of Nogueira from her college days, promoting some common study and hangout spots at her university with no accent to be heard. The clip was taken from the @bryantorientation Instagram account, and was posted on June 10, 2018.
Apparently, Twitter has been predicting this for a while now.
However, Nogueira has addressed these rumors about her accent in an exclusive interview with Breaking Beauty Podcast on March 2. Nogueira opened up about the story behind her fake accent and plot twist, it was something she was told he had to change if she ever wanted to be on the radio (which is what she was studying in college). Nogueira was told that her voice “sounded like a man” so she set out to put on a “fake, radio voice, that people won’t talk about,” in an effort to avoid it being the “main point of discussion” when it comes to her career.
Now, I’m all for a good scandal and while she has broken her fans’ trust more than once, perhaps this isn’t as big as we think it is.
We’ve all been made fun of for things growing up. Someone in middle school told me I had hairy arms and looked like bigfoot, so I shaved my arms until my junior year of high school. Perhaps this “fake accent” story isn’t meant for the drama channels, and is really a story about the celebration of overcoming childhood bullying and loving the parts of yourself that once made you insecure. Let’s wrap this drama up, and simply move on.