When one wins the title of Miss Virtual World within Second Life®, your life changes. It doesn't make a bit of difference that it is within a virtual world. It affects your choices and your routine, both here and real life. MVW 2010 Miaa Rebane has handled it all while balancing a busy job as well as continuing education. And she's managed to do it all with her own brand of humor, poise and style.

Miaa first heard about Second Life® via a research paper on the internet. This led to a discussion in class about the virtual world where she learned from her professor that the University had an SL sim. Highly curious, Miaa signed up.

“I was in Help Island and this girl sent me a folder with clothes and landmarks of freebie places so I shopped and I shopped and I shopped some more. After that I uploaded a bit of lindens and this other person said they would take me to the really good shops.”

We all know how that goes! Miaa continued exploring and along the way frequented freebie photo studios to take pictures. She spent her time shopping and attending classes at NCI, learning about building and texturing.

“It was really fascinating, seeing all of this creativity. For me to paint in real life, I need an open space. I live in downtown, concrete jungle. I need to bring out all my paints, brushes, cleaners and then once I am done I need to clean up and varnish. It's lot of time and effort so I guess there was always this want for creativity that I missed and Second Life somehow fulfilled it. I remember how really happy I was going to those classes.”

Little did she know, things were about to take an interesting turn.

“One day this girl Keathe – from Flickr – she said that she'd do pics for me. She gave me tons of landmarks that had some modeling agencies mixed in. I applied to a few agencies, GIA, MODA. This was about two months after having been in world.”

“I joined Model's Workshop and won their first contest; 'Make It Work'. I got admission to EIMA, some clothes and lindens. I was in Flickr already so I sent a message to Senna [Sennaspirit Coronet, photographer] and he did some photos of me. He introduced me to Sura and Rusch. I had messaged Mui [Mukerji] asking her if she would make a shape for me. She encouraged me to enter this contest called Miss Virtual World. I had no idea how it worked. I sent Frolic [Mills] an IM asking how much I need to pay him to enter. He never replied.”

Oh were we all that young once? I think we were. After another two months, Miaa was selected and got in. By September though, the reality of her decision to enter the most sought after title in Second Life really hit her.

“Yes, by then I knew. But honestly even if you do, unless you go through the experience, you won't know how big this is. It is rigorous. It needs a lot of commitment. MVW contest lasts for three to four months. You are constantly judged. You always need to have your game face on, no matter what. You hear a bad feedback, you try harder but can't give up. It takes lot of confidence in your judgement - something I feel I have more now than when I started but I also feel my education helped me.”

True that it is not only a contest about looks. Though those may be exceptionally beautiful. For styling you need to have an eye for what works on you and with Second Life it is much more simple to be beautiful. Adjust a slider here, nip in a prim there. The confidence is another matter and hits at the core of who we truly are.

“I was confident of my looks and abilities, but I didn't know what the judges were really looking for. When you are in it, you are constantly giving your best. I felt confident that I would be in top ten. Twenty-two of us shared a common dream, I didn't know that it would come true. When I won, there was only one thing in my mind. 'Please do not crash me.'

Winning the contest also enabled her to bring attention to things she was passionate about in Real Life. Namely the amazing effort put for with the Project Tents charity to benefit Haiti disaster victims in cooperation with ShelterBox. An event that joined a massive number of SL fashion creators ranging from CHANTKARE TO Azul. It raised over 2200US dollars and was featured in BOSL Magazine. An event she wants to do again in early 2011.

In the real world, Miaa is working toward her Masters now in User Interface Design; for those of use it is the design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile communication devices, software applications, and websites with the focus on the user's experience and interaction. The goal being to make the user's interaction as simple and efficient as possible. Her own natural sense of style is one that is unique and recognizable as her own stamp when you view her many photographs on Flickr.

“I came to Second Life® because of my curiosity but the whole aspect of creating something beautiful kept me here. I love to style. It is easy to look like anything you want in Second Life. I can be 7'1" in SL while in RL I'm just 5'7. I think my style is more like real life as well. How I would dress myself in real life is how I try to dress here. There's a fluidity and beauty to keeping the style as close to real life as possible.”

That's not to say she doesn't enjoy the fun of dressing differently in Second Life. Its a wonderful medium to explore and try things you might not be able to pull off in real life. Her photography includes some very fantastical looks such as the CStar Fantasy Model skins. She is a bit more timid about her photography skills. Not unlike a lot of talented artists who overly critique their own work.

“I don't consider myself a Photoshop expert. What Monica Outlander does for example is some of the most beautiful Photoshop work. Taking snapshots is different and I think that because I paint in real life, I can take good snapshots. Understanding what angles look good.”

Her fashion faves range from Couture designers to Japanese creators. “I really love the new Cheerno Femme line, Gasque, Miamai, Azul, Nicky Ree, QueenQueen, Milk Motion, and Japanese designers in general.”

Now that her reign is coming to an end next month, I ask what she has planned for the future of her Second Life. “I'll dedicate my time to modeling and styling and doing something in the same field. Expanding my photography knowledge. I've started a new style project with some amazing people in Second Life and hope to have that launched by December.”

We stop the interview as she takes a message from a future MVW contestant, fraught with worry about their style and look and the judges. She listens attentively, soothes the young lady and gives her advice assuring her to take a day to process it all, sleep on it and then contact her the next day so they can talk more. I ask her if this ever gets tiring.

“I feel its part of who I am to help someone else. I was there once so I know how it feels. I always give constructive criticism because without that you can't grow. It would be doing them an injustice to lie and say what they want to hear. The least I can do is to be honest with them in a constructive manner.”

Personally I think my head would explode from so much messaging. But again she seems to just get on with it. “Sometimes I'm not feeling so good, or if I had a rough day at work. I'm only human. But I do my best.”

And just perhaps folks, that's what being Miss Virtual World is all about.

You can see more of Miaa's photos on her flickr here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/miarebane/

Join us this Sunday to celebrate with Miaa at her Influential's party! Details will be released soon about the theme. I can say right now, you are gonna LOVE IT!

peace,

Keshi