Cheryl Cristole

Having just returned to Second Life after a twelve year absence I am looking for some help building a new avatar. In a nut shell, how do you do that and where do you begin? My old system avatar is well beyond obsolete and it feels like the learning curve for a newbie has increased by a factor of ten from the first time I went through it. Mesh bodies seem to be the norm and the sheer number of choices is mind boggling. Looking for creation guides and tutorials on youtube is also quite the challenge. Of the ones that I have watched all seem to start with a mesh avatar as the default and are merely doing further customization from one mesh look to another which is far, far away from where I and other newbs are beginning from. Does anyone know of any resources available that can give people a step by step approach, as if you just stepped onto newbie island? Many thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction.