Olympia's doll Qai Qai gains insane social media fame

To the surprise of no one, Serena Williams' daughter is already world famous and she's not even out of diapers yet. One-year-old Alexis Olympia Jr. seems to be a natural for the spotlight—so much so that even her doll is famous.

The internet has seen babies and pets pick up hundreds of thousands of followers before (Olympia has over 500,000 on Instagram), but inanimate objects are still hard to wrap your head around. Of course there's the likes of Elmo and Peppa Pig, but they're animated television characters, not just children's toys. If anyone is going to regularly break the mold—and the internet—it's going to be Serena and her offspring.

Meet Qai Qai, a doll with a bold personality and a lot of injuries thanks to her mom (Olympia) forgetting her all over the house, and the world.

"I wanted her to have a black doll,” Serena said after beating Tatjana Maria in her opening round in Melbourne. "Growing up, I didn’t have that many opportunities to have black dolls. And I was just thinking, like, I want her first doll to be black.

"I definitely want to always teach her love and teach her just basic human—humans should always have love for each other, no matter what color they are."

In just her Grand Slam debut, Qai Qai has morphed into a global sensation—arguably the biggest star of the Australian Open (you can cringe, it's OK). She has over 80,000 followers on Instagram and has become the topic of news stories—including this one.

It's not all fun and games all of the time though as uncharted territory can carry rough waters. ESPN picked up some flack for comparing Maria's Twitter followers with Serena, Olympia and Qai Qai. It came off a little mean and irrelevant, when they were likely going for humorous.

Frances Tiafoe, who teamed up with Serena at the Hopman Cup, won the biggest match of his career over Kevin Anderson in the second round in Melbourne. During his post-match press, he was asked about Qai Qai, which seemed absurd given what he had just accomplished.

In her defense, Qai Qai isn't just a regular doll. She (or her Instagram) has two personas: one for when she's a normal doll and a second one for when she springs to life, like in *Toy Story*.

But really, why is everyone talking about and following a doll? Yes, it's weird and it's silly, but also, it's fun and who doesn't need some fun? Social media is a huge part of our everyday lives that's still a mystery to figure out. Sometimes the oddest things pick up the most fame (like an egg that has over 40 million likes). It can't hurt to just ride the social media fame train to... wherever it takes Qai Qai, be it advertising income, merchandise sales, a TV show, children's books or just memories to look back on.

Having the greatest player of all time as your grandmother certainly helps boost your profile. Anything that Serena puts her support behind will succeed.

And sharing behind-the-scenes action from the Australian Open as Williams chases Grand Slam No. 24 is a sure-fire way to gain even more attention.

But don't kid yourselves, you're still just following the moves of a child's toy with an experienced PR mind behind her.

There's two choices here: scoff at the madness of how low our society has fallen while forlornly accepting that you'll peak at 1,300 lifetime followers, or just have a laugh and embrace it because it's all in good fun.

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