New Year, New You! Image Contest

Okay, let's get one thing out in the open....

I am not ashamed of being an African American woman in real life.  I've lived in this skin for almost 48.   But one day it occured to me -- why isn't my Second LIfe avatar a proud African American woman, as well?  Thus, the change.  I love it!

Your former appearance was very nice, your new appearance is of majestical beauty.

I love this. It has meaning as well as a lovely change in appearance.

Lana and Prairie,

Thank you so much for your comments and compliments. 

Very pretty!!

That does have me curious at times, who wears a completely different tone of skin than that of their RL.

I know for me, I wear several different shades, depending on my mood or what I think will set off my outfit the best that day.

Wouldn't that be great to have the option in RL LOL!

"Hmmm.... this dark tan skin is looking extra silky today.... perfect!"

I love it!

Interesting. That can work both ways. I have a friend who's avi appears very African-American: skin at least as dark as yours, black hair. But she tells me she's actually mixed descent and in RL is much lighter-skinned than her avatar. She's just chosen to accentuate that part of her ancestry.

Great look, by the way :-).

great look with the contrasting colors of the ligh hair and the deep skintone. i always have an asian avi, i feel like i should "represent". unfortunately the "asian" skins don't always look asian. btw do you post pics in the SL groups in Flickr?

You look great, before and after as an AA man I apreciate what your saying, I make my avi as close to me as I possibly can.

One thing I have told myself is that Im not going to judge any avi that comes up to me. I look at me at home on the pc as the soul and my avi as the body. I guess what Im saying is as long as that persons soul if good I could care less.

But there is something I love about seeing me, SL is great

Be proud of who you are. Like the previous poster said 'you' are the soul that shines through the avi. People will love or hate you based on that. With that being said, finding a skin and shape that matches who you are in RL is a bonus.

It's funny that they say you usually end up looking like yourself when you get an avatar you like, but I kinda went the opposite way. I have a tall avatar because I'm short in RL, and have dark hair in SL because I'm blonde in RL. The only thing that's the same is my pale, freckled skin

Ah race....the dreaded and wonderful thing -

I started out wanting an avi that "looked" as close to me in rl as possible......

I realized after a short amt of  time on sl that skintones that actually are "black" (or at least not caucasian) in rl get "regarded" as "caucasian with a tan" in sl.   .....never would you see these colors called "white" in rl.  But thats sl.

So I started to question maybe other black people were were experiencing that too.....and maybe it accounts for some of the "extreme demonstrations of ethnicity" I see around sl  -a body has to go "really really black to 'be' black" (no "high yallah", cafe au lait, "redboned" , caramel blacks like rl just  "white....with a tan" ) , or the hyperboled shapes for black women........ dunno.....Its curious tho that it exists. And I have to put my own skin choice on the table too because there IS a great  pleasure and pride in being able to be recognized as your own race .

If it were "just" me and you didn't have the filter of the rest of the populus of sl to go through I would have said that your FIRST avi was "other than white" . Could have been a lot of things .....none of my picks would have been "white" tho.  But its not just me, and so I "get" you.

Congratulations on the new look . Seriously.

Great new look