Beauty 3.0

In the metaverse, we can be whoever we want to be. Is that a good thing?

- BY MATTIE KAHN

Giselle Mota could see pale complexions and slim hips. She glimpsed fine, straight hair and a parade of bodies that bore little resemblance to her own. She has built her career in emerging technologies, so it's no shock to her to realize she is the sole woman of color and sometimes, woman, period-in a room.

But the problem this time was different. Here was a room to which she could not gain access at all.

Mota wasn't rooting around for her ticket to an exclusive conference or hoping for an invite to an important meeting. She was trying to build an avatar to enter a digital universe-one of a growing number that allows users to experience alternate realities in a virtual landscape. But Mota, an entrepreneur and futurist, couldn't make one. She is a Black woman. These avatars seemed to hail from Scandinavia.

"No one like me," Mota recalls, with a rueful laugh.

"Nothing kind of short, stout, with big hair. No big lips, curves. None of that." The metaverse-a catch-all term that describes virtual communities that allow users to move in space and often socialize-has been hailed as the next frontier in internet exploration. Its promise drove Facebook to rebrand as Meta and unveil its Horizon Worlds initiative. (So far, the bet has not paid off. The platform has somehow lost 100,000 users since its launch in 2021; it didn't have tons to begin with.) Roblox is better positioned. Its 58 million active users enter 3D immersive environments with friends or to meet new people. Its stock surged at the start of 2023, reflecting better-than-expected revenue; a recent trend report seems to attribute at least some of that success to increased interest in Roblox clothes and accessories.