Online Identities

For my avatar in Second Life, I tried to make it as close to me as possible. The way I present my self in person is closely linked with my identity, so I wanted to try to maintain that presentation online. I'm not that adept at manipulating the avatar, but I chose some normal clothes, jeans and a purple shirt, and a brown ponytail for my avatar. However, she is built like a Barbie doll, with long thick fabulous hair and ice blue eyes. This is not really reflective of my own appearance, which I feel a little weird about. I don't wear tight clothes, I don't wear contacts, I don't straighten my hair, because that's not how I see myself, which makes my avatar a little weird. I'm sure that if I worked harder, I could get her glasses and a different haircut, but the point still stands, there's only so much you can do. I guess the other option would be to go for a total fantasy, like make myself Han Solo or something. But frankly, I don't want people to think that I'm Han, I want them to think that I am a normal young woman. Interaction online can be difficult for me, because I don't know how other people feel about their representations. I'm fairly good at reading people in person, but this is almost impossible online. I don't usually interact online with people I don't know offline, so this is a fairly new area for me, and I am curious how my feelings will change as I do it more.