I prefer my avatar at yahoo.com, but the folks at Stardoll are offering girls (and boys) of all ages the simple pleasure of playing dress up without the hassle of leaving the office midday.

Sign up at Stardoll.com and you can create the virtual you. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t anything even close to my hairstyle  (I’m starting dreadlocks), but I was pleased with the variety of eye, eyebrow and lip shapes. It’s kind of like a psychological experiment. Does the you on the page actually look like you? I think my character is cuter than me and she definitely looks better in a swimsuit, but I’m not taking it personal.

The benefit of Stardoll is dressing up your favorite celebrities. You get a wardrobe and you click and pull clothes for folks as varied as Audrey Tautou, Paulina Porizkova and Johnny Depp to Hrithik Roshan, Billy Ray Cyrus and Cameron Diaz.

FYI: On Yahoo’s site, you can dress and accessorize your avatar for free. Here you’ll have to pay for clothes and items with points that you can either buy or earn, but it seemed to complicated for my thirty-something brain to wade through (the site afterall is geared to 9-17 year olds). I think you can get points by inviting people, but I can’t say that I spent much time on the site after it took me nearly a half hour to create the virtual Debra. You can check her out at www.stardoll.com/member/Curiousdebra.

Create your own and do let me know the results.