Dollz

Dollz, cartoon dolls, or pixel dolls are small pixelated digital images, generally consisting of illustrations of people with clothes and accessories.

Dollz are generally created by taking a base body (a drawing of a bald and naked body created for this purpose), and then drawing hair, clothes and accessories onto it. They also usually have a hard edge and transparent background so that they can be easily displayed on the web. People who create dollz are known as dollers or dollists. They are, in great majority, women, although a few male dollers exist. These dollers usually take on dolling as a personal hobby.

History

Dollz were first created to be used as avatars on The Palace Chat Program in 1995. The invention of dollz is attributed to Melicia Greenwood (also known as artgrrl, or shatteredInnocents), mainly because of her detailed web publishing on the history of dollz. Her new avatars were freely distributed on the main Palace server, the "Mansion". Within weeks thousands of creatively modified dollz were redistributed around the many Palace servers, replacing the default smiley face avatars that were previously used. Many teenagers adopted dollz avatars as a sign of rebellion against older Palace users.