Qai Qai


Qai Qai, is a doll of Alexis Olympia Ohanian, the daughter of American professional tennis player, winner of 23 Grand Slam titles, Serena Williams and Reddit co-founder and Initialized Capital co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. She has become popular on social media as of 2018, with many pictures of her face digitized and animated to have various expressions.

Background

Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams' daughter, Olympia, was born on September 1, 2017 in West Palm Beach, Florida. When Williams bought the doll for Olympia, she indicated that she wanted her daughter's first doll to be black because growing up, she did not have many opportunities to own a black doll. Qai Qai got her name from Williams's nephew.

Social media presence

Qai Qai's first post on her own Instagram was on August 22, 2018 where she is lying on the floor. She also joined Twitter that month, although the account has not been officially verified.
Popularity and fandom has increased for Qai Qai. While likely run by Olympia's parents, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian, it is unknown who administers the doll's account.
Some Images show Qai Qai being neglected. This spurred public concern where social media fans used the hashtag #QQPS.
Qai Qai has been featured in several USA Today articles, Today and Oprah magazine, the last of which she did an exclusive interview.
On August 29, 2019, Alexis Ohanian Sr, wore a shirt with Qai Qai's likeness to the 2019 US Open Match with Serena Williams vs Caty McNally. This same shirt was worn by Ohanian Sr in an Instagram post on December 14, 2018.. Another Qai Qai shirt was featured on Ohanian Sr's Instagram Post This selfie shirt was part of a limited run fundraiser for the non-profit organization Zoe’s Dolls, which was founded by an eleven year old with the mission of giving brown dolls away to brown kids.
On December 2, 2019, @realqaiqai announced on Twitter that additional merchandise is available for Cyber Monday 2019 with a portion of proceeds going to Zoe's Dolls.

Digitalization

In addition to the actual doll making appearances, Qai Qai appears animated facial expressions digitally created and inserted into photographs. This effect of a doll becoming lifelike is in a similar nature to the Toy Story movie franchise.