How to Make a Virtual Avatar for Teens

the Internet every day. To keep anonymity, creating a cartoon teen avatar can represent a teen in a cool way. Virtual avatars are made to simply show an appearance of a person on a bio page, next to a blog post or next to a forum conversation. It represents the person who is engaged in the conversation, but does not necessarily need to be a true depiction of the person.

Difficulty:ModerateBrowser Microsoft Paint or Graphics program 1

Open the Internet browser and navigate to Anime Face Maker (see Resources for a link).

2

Click on the skin color and background color to start the new avatar.

3

Click the hair selection button and choose a hair style and hair color. Continue creating the avatar with eye shapes, mouth shapes, eyebrows, and accessories. When satisfied with the image, right-click on the avatar and choose "Zoom In" from the menu.

4

Hit the "PrntScr" button on the keyboard to take a screen capture of the avatar.

1

Open the Paint program by clicking "Start," "All Programs," "Accessories" and then selecting "Paint." A blank image file opens.

2

Click the "Paste" button. The screen capture will appear inside the Paint window.

3

Click the "Select" button. Put the mouse pointer over the upper left corner of the avatar box. Click and hold the mouse button and drag it to the lower right corner of the avatar box. Let go of the mouse button. An outline will appear around the avatar.

4

Click the "Crop" button. The surrounding screen capture will disappear and the avatar will remain in the paint window.

5

Click the "Paint Button," "Save As..." and then choose "JPEG picture." Name the file and place it in a directory that is easy to remember.

The Paint program comes with all versions of Microsoft Windows.

The "My Documents" and "My Pictures" folders are the best place to keep an avatar image.

Using a true image of a teen can invite Internet predators. It is better to create a cartoon or use an image that does not closely match a teen's appearance.