Talk:Alexis Smith

I like Alexis's reflection of the features she chose to create her avatar and her fantasy avatar. I particularly like the way she described the fantasy avatar by the things that she is not. It is not often that given the opportunity to change something about ourselves, the creator chooses to change Everything, and that choice is something bold and adventurous that not everyone can make. Most people want to change something small, or a few small characteristics. I also like the way the author integrated the movie "Mean Girls" into her reflection; the struggle that the main character felt when trying to fit in with the popular crowd is something with which the author seems to relate. Perhaps she underwent the same struggle and, like the movie, ultimately realized that she does not need to change herself to fit in with other people. As far as challenges with creating the avatar, the author discusses the lack of selection choices for the facial makeup and skin tone of her personal avatar. This is a challenge that I felt when creating my own avatar as well. We are constricted to the specific set of options that the evolver.com website created, which, as she points out, highly biased and not very specific. Certain options are available to certain faces, while those same options are not available to other features. Overall, I enjoyed the reflection and felt that I was able to understand and relate to the challenges faced, while still making clear the reasons for the choices made about the avatar.

-Tommy Oneill

I like that Alexis points of limitations of the evolver software which many people would view as fairly-obvious, especially for the creation of a female avatar. For example, Alexis points out the lack of make up, shoe, and hair options which are three things that usually come to mind as popular items that girls take a lot of care and attention to. Alexis also relates these lack of options to the creators (a group of Caucasian males), implying the disconnect between what the creators think a girl "should" look like, and what a girl actually like. I also like the basis that she used for the fantasy avatar. It is interesting to think of designing the fantasy avatar as all things that she is NOT. When I think of non-personal avatars (i.e., avatars not created to be in our image), I envision creating the avatar to look like what I want to be rather than what I am not. I also like that Alexis adds a section to explain this sentiment too (that Ashley is the not-Alexis, but at the end of the day she would not want to be Ashley). - Allan Lynch