Ah yes, the Met Gala. The event that keeps people glued to their phones, refreshing the hashtag #MetGala on X (Twitter), hoping their favorite celebrity in their favorite designer hits the carpet and walks up those long, beautiful steps. For some, the goal is to give their unfiltered critique on the outfits before anyone else. For the less celebrity and fashion obsessed, the goal is simply to see what the hell is going on and imagine what could possibly be happening behind those doors. 

No matter which category you fall into, the posts you’re almost guaranteed to see at the top of #MetGala will be from @21metgala. On the night of the Costume Institute’s gala, the account has historically been the fastest to post, garnering thousands of likes in mere seconds and gaining well over 10,000 followers in the span of a couple hours, helping it reach 159,000 as of writing. Posts of Anok Yai and Jenna Ortega at the 2023 Met Gala pulled in well over 20 million impressions, and another of Anne Hathaway from the same year sits at over 222,000 likes, making it @21metgala’s most liked post to date. 

“I believe what makes my account special during these events, particularly the Met Gala, is the speed at which I offer the photos,” Maria, one of the lead co-operators of the famous account, told us over WhatsApp. “The audience is there, eager for the outfits that celebrities will wear to the world’s biggest fashion event, so as soon as I post, everyone goes wild.”

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In some ways, Maria, an 18-year-old full-time student (who requested we refer to her by first name only) leads a life similar to her peers. She attends university during the day, enjoys horseback riding on her family’s farm (“I’m a horse lover!”), is a huge fan of the pop star Dua Lipa, and has aspirations of “contributing to skincare brands, especially those of famous people” post-grad. 

In other ways, or in one big way, Maria leads a life that’s nothing like her peers’. Because while they’re doing schoolwork, Maria and her internet friend, Tamara, are running one of the most renowned X accounts there is.

Though they both live in Brazil, they’ve never met in person. It was internet fandom that first brought them together. “We’re both fans of the Kardashian-Jenner family...My favorite is Kendall and [Tamara’s] is Kylie.” From what Maria can recall, she found a like-minded tweet of Tamara a few years back and, after messaging through Twitter, @21Metgala was born ahead of the MET Gala in 2021.

The decision to cover fashion’s biggest night was an easy one. They “were both passionate about celebrities” (and of course, really online). The MET Gala was and is available only via livestream (and over 4,000 miles away), but that didn’t stop the two from staying up all night, posting, and making each other laugh. By morning, they knew they were onto something special. 

@21MetGala doesn’t exclusively cover the first Monday in May. Since founding it, Maria and Tamara have expanded to all sorts of pop-culture moments. Their content ranges from viral photographs of Billie Eilish wearing Chrome Hearts on the Grammys red carpet to Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae leaving a Knicks game to pictures of celebs leaving an intimate date night at Sushi Park. The account was even one of the first to spread the video of Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet cuddled up at Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour last year – a post that brought in over 78,000 likes and 52 million impressions and counting.

How do they get posts up so quickly? They’re just that fast. And, they’re always on the lookout. Maria says the two of them are constantly perusing sites like Getty Images or Backgrid for new content. Any recent photo of a celebrity that fashion or stan Twitter cares about and is up on those websites is likely going to be posted on @21metgala. It really is about speed and curation. 

As one could imagine, they devote a lot of time to this pursuit. “Certainly it can be challenging to balance managing the account, which often feels like a full-time job, with studies,” says Maria. “On days of major events like the Oscars, Grammys, or Met Gala, [Tamara and I] sometimes even go without much sleep. We spend the whole day keeping an eye out to update things in the best and fastest way possible…I don’t know how we haven’t gone crazy yet!” 

But, in the end, it’s all worthwhile: “the passion for the account and interaction with followers make the extra effort very rewarding.” 

And they have each other. “We split the work. Both of us are in charge of everything. For example, when I’m online, I make posts, answer emails, and do other things, and vice versa.”

As any social strategist worth their salt can attest, subscriptions to services like Getty and Backgrid, plus paying photographers for exclusives, can run from hundreds to upwards of thousands of dollars. And while not everyone posting about the Met Gala is going through the proper channels, aka paying for content, the good accounts are. Paying for access is also how they’re able to see the content, and then post it, super fast. But paying for subscription services is also a way for Maria and Tamara to contribute to their community; they’ve got the means to afford subscriptions and many if not most don’t, and they want to share. “[X] monetizes us…so we use the money to invest in the account,” Maria explains. “Before monetization, we managed to pay the necessary costs somehow but with it, everything changed.” 

Maria tells me they feel so strongly about posting a plethora of images and going through the stress of keeping up with each and every celebrity-filled event because they believe they are democratizing access to otherwise closed-network events. In particular, events like the Met Gala. “We think it’s important for everyone to be able to see and share images, not just those who can afford to,” she says. “We understand how cool it is to see your idols in everyday life or at events.”

What’s Maria’s favorite Met look of all time? Of course Rihanna’s Guo Pei ensemble from the 2015 Met. Her least favorite? That would be Zendaya in 2019 (“I think the idea was good but the execution was poor”). We kindly disagree (huge Zendaya stans over here). But, she adds that Zendaya is primed to be this year's best dressed. “Zendaya has a very good styling and glam team, she always leaves us speechless.” We agree and move on. And who is she most excited to see this year? “Blake Lively.” And, same.