Anya, author of the i-Anya blog and Australian academic, has been spending some time in the Second Life online world lately. There, she met a virtual model named Starr, who earns a real income from her Second Life career. (And just think, she doesn’t even have to worry about dieting – or aging!)

Yesterday I spent some time talking with Starr. Starr is a model in Second Life. That is, she models skins and clothes for various designers in regular fashion shows across the world. She has over 100 different model poses, and multiple sets of shoes that have built in animations of walking styles once she wears them. Starr spends at least an hour every week practising her walks and poses. Every day she searches for additional poses and talks to fashion designers. And Starr earns enough real money doing this to feed her family.

Read about it in Virtual Life, Real Economy.