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Hi, I’m Carlos Vieira. I write stories about identity, belonging, and the systems that shape who we become.

You are the product
New Essay

You Are Not Just the Audience. You Are the Product.

You think you’re using the app. Scrolling. Watching. Choosing.

But what if the real product is not what you buy, but what you pay attention to?

Every scroll feels personal. Every click looks voluntary.
That is what makes the system powerful.

Now live, check it out on your lunch time.

Not everything that captures your attention is simply trying to sell you something. Sometimes, it is shaping what feels normal.

#advertising #identity #consumerism #media #selfawareness

Borrowed Identity

A Novel of Belonging, Deception, and Becoming

How far can someone go to feel recognised?

Mara has grown up on the edges of certainty, moving through foster homes, temporary rooms, and places where nothing lasts long enough to feel real. Stability has always belonged to someone else.

When she discovers she has a twin sister, Lina, raised in safety and affection she never knew, the revelation unsettles everything she understands about herself.

Through a chain of quiet decisions, Mara steps into Lina’s world. A message sent under the wrong name becomes an opening into tenderness, trust, and the fragile possibility of being seen differently.

But borrowed belonging has a cost.

As her connection with Jonas deepens, Mara must confront the question beneath the lie: who is she when no one is mistaking her for someone else?

Borrowed Identity is a character-driven literary novel about longing, recognition, adoption, foster care, and the delicate line between reinvention and self-erasure. It explores what it means to be chosen, to be claimed, and ultimately, to choose oneself.

Borrowed Identity