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. Also, she relates the lack of skin-tone colors to the same problem (software creator bias) which is interesting -- there are few "ethnic" skin tone variations yet abundant Caucasian variations. 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 (i.e., the fantasy avatar may be similar to my regular appearance with tweaks to make it more appealing) rather than what I am not so seeing Alexis's take on the fantasy avatar was refreshing and eye-opening. 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). However, throughout the reflection, I feel that some points could have been explained more. She seems to follow a "I chose this because that". Also, it seems that other people's standard view of her influenced part of her avatar design. It would be interesting to know the personal significance that her choices have to her or how she feels about "be[ing] repeatedly recognized as "the girl with the long hair" growing up". - Allan Lynch

I really enjoyed Alexis's reflection of the her self portrait avatar, but what I liked even more was her fantasy avatar reflection. It was very cool for her to incorporate "Mean Girls" into her reflection. Not only do I love that movie, but by incorporating it into her writing in a creative way was interesting. Also, when she mentioned how she isn't too feminine of a person, and chose to make her fantasy avatar more feminine, I think it's clear that many did this when created their fantasy avatar. Some thought that they weren't masculine enough or feminine enough and made their fantasy avatar into their wants and desires of themselves. As for her discussion of obstacles and troubles she faced when creating her avatars, it was very detailed and relative. I know I encountered some of the same exact problems. The issue of perfecting my facial features was a huge issue. Another challenge that I was glad she brought up was about the hair choices on Evolver. I think we all can agree that there weren't too many realistic hairstyles in selections. All in all, I believe Alexis's reflection was thorough and complete and easy to understand and relate to.

-Paul Reid