I didn't join the palace until a couple years after these were created. By that time, there were better avatar options. I always thought these were kind of creepy looking and would avoid anyone that I encountered who was wearing one. There's a stranger danger vibe here and I'm not into it.

The “prep” doll is probably the one everyone is most familiar with. This doll is probably one of the most iconic pieces of pixel art that I’ve seen in my lifetime. A little-known fact about the prep dollz is they are not all “preppy” and were actually created by a goth girl. Think of “prep” as the doll type, not the clothing style. You’ll see this doll decked out in the most Enoby Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way outfits later. trust me. Many of the adults on The Palace did not like preps and would ban anyone they saw with a prep avatar.

This was the av you would wear to show that you had ~matured~ beyond preps. If your friends came online or if you were set up in a shop doing edits it was mini time. But when nobody was looking, it was prep avs and the beauty contest.

I never used these and I'm not sure if I ever encountered one in the wild. I think they are a bit uninspiring and I don't really have much to say about them.

I'm going to be honest here. I straight up hate these. They give me the creeps. Nobody asked for a doll that looks like a precious moments crying angel baby with huge boobs and an even bigger head. These might be worse than the back alley sk8r dolls from '96.

They're not really babies at all. Sure, there are random pacifier avs but it's a rave pacifier, not a baby pacifier. These are a lot like minis but smaller. You'll probably start to notice a trend moving towards smaller and smaller avs moving forward.

Silents were great alternative if you were trying to avoid wearing a prep av. They've got no mouth, closed eyes and have a pretty wide variety of clothing styles and creative edits. A silent avatar lets everyone know that you are different and introspective. They are still some of my favorite dollz and I'd love to see them make a comeback.

Goth music was starting to hit the mainstream. Teenagers were discovering bands like deadsy, kittie and jack-off-jill on yahoo radio and then downloading the entire album on limewire. Of course, we needed goth avs to show the world that we weren't posers. It's not a phase, mom.

Preps never really went anywhere but they started to rise in popularity again. This partially has to do with less Palaces enforcing a ban on the preps and because they were the most palatable avatar option for teenage girls. The clothing and hair became more detailed and reflected the popular y2k style. The prep also got a boyfriend... I think this quote from ravey encapsulates how I feel about the male doll: “i always wondered like, who is making these? i've never seen the guy avatar with a thousand rippling muscles and been like "YES this is perfect"”

I didn't wear these regularly, but I did like them. they were a little bit clunky in the prop bag in terms of how the pieces fit together. I still think they are cute in the modern day.

Around this time, the silents began to open their eyes and split off into other categories of dollz. The first iteration of this were the ravers. I've yet to mention that the color palette of the palace was difficult to work with. We will get to that a bit later, but essentially, it's a lot of bright saturated colors, grungy olive-green based colors, a few light colors and nothing in between. I think the of the ravers did a great job making do with what we had. The design also holds up in the current year. I still love them.

The Palace user base was increasing with a greater focus on editing as opposed to classic rock and buffy avatars. This led to a major improvement on anatomy and proportions for the smaller dolls. Bonitas were one of my most commonly worn avatars and have greatly influenced how I draw tiny pixel people.

Remember when I mentioned that avatars started getting smaller and smaller? If you take Bonitas and shrink them by like, 20% you get Sweets. It's probably not a surprise that these were my favorite.

I almost didn't include these. First of all, these started popping up around the time that I stopped using the Palace. Second, I don’t really like them, and I think they are designed poorly, especially compared to the prep. The proportions on the legs drive me insane. Why do they need an 8-inch thigh gap? Why do they look so musty? Are these actually bad or is it just me?