Nowadays, it seems you can't buy a doll without an associated online virtual world, not that we're complaining. Ty, the makers of Beanie Babies, have also made an online world for their TyGirlz series of dolls.

The Dolls

Similar in appearance to Bratz dolls but less trashy, the TyGirlz dolls differ the most from Bratz and Barbie in that they're plush, so they found a quick home in the menageries that are our girls' beds. The dolls also have wires throughout their bodies, allowing for posing. (My 10-year-old points out that they can do pointe if you pretend they're in dance class.) Available in many variations, you should be able to find a girl to fit your daughter.

TyGirlz.com

With each TyGirl comes a code to allow you a year's membership at tygirlz.com, the associated online world. When you create a profile, your online presence looks just like the associated doll. That online world consists of several sections, all of which are available from the top menu:

All About Me

In "All About Me," you can list certain features about yourself, such as age, zodiac birth sign, and favorites like foods and other personality descriptions. This, though, has been a source of frustration, as the game doesn't save your settings, except birth date, money, music, and favorite game. While "Mood" may change from time to time, most kids' favorite pet doesn't change each time, so this makes the profile either useless or a source of frustration. The page even gives the option of sharing your profile via a custom URL, but since it resets most of the information, you'll find the image at right on every one.

This page also lists favorite games for easy access, a daily fortune cookie, wallpaper options, music options (with actual licensed music in different genres from 60's to selections from High School Musical 2--but note that some of the music may be borderline inappropriate--google the lyrics for one of the country songs: "Online" by Brad Paisley), friend lists, and an ad for what's new from TyGirlz, both virtually and new dolls.

My House

At "My House," you can rearrange and design a room, but while you can drag and drop the doll around the room and change her appearance, she doesn't move or interact with her surroundings or even pose. The chairs and bed are useless and for display only like a museum. Additional rooms can be gained later, but again, with no interaction, there seems little point to furnish a dollhouse if the dolls can't interact with the furnishings.

Chat

The Chat room allows you to place your TyGirl in a chat room with backgrounds from different countries. Using the menu of available sayings, you can try to have a slow conversation, the system preventing the sharing of personal information. The available options have a few categories, but not nearly as many as some other online worlds. One advantage of this system, though, is the addition of "Faces," which work like chat smilies, but change the expression of your TyGirl. A "Cell Phone" also allows for sending messages and eCards to friends, and this has a search feature to find the phrase you're looking for.

Parents can give permission for "freestyle chat," but note that this allows for sharing personal information and can be the equivalent of "talking to strangers."

Games/Fun Stuff

The games area offers a selection of casual games like Memory, a Bejeweled clone, and others. My 10-year-old found them to be pretty difficult, but my 12-year-old found them to be too easy. Even on a 1GHz computer, I found the reaction time of both the system and the games to be slow, thus making some of the games unnecessarily difficult to play. Sometimes, clicking "Play" to play a game gave no response, so either the flash didn't load properly, it's buggy, or both. All games are single-player-only, and the better you do, the more you earn to spend on the shop section.

"Fun Stuff" is the obligatory "makeover" section of every girls' online world. Apply makeup, outfits, and other accessories to get girls ready for all kinds of outings from formal evenings to costume parties.

Shop

"Shop Around the World" gives your TyGirl the opportunity to spend the money won in games on Makeovers, Clothes, Furniture, and Food in many different countries. Sadly, every country offers the same food and furniture. If they're going to offer different countries, how about foods from the actual countries? The furniture store doesn't even have a different background in different countries. Clothing, though, offers different styles for different countries, which is nice, although as a dad, I wasn't thrilled with some of the borderline risqué wardrobe in Paris.

TyGirlz Collection

This section advertises all of the different TyGirlz merchandise--dolls and outfits--available. Here's where the ad comes in. That said, it's not nearly as obtrusive as the ads in many other online game worlds. Do explain to your girls, though, that the "Gotta Get it!" button does not actually mean they're morally obligated to buy them all!

One serious advantage of the TyGirlz.com is that it offers a demo which will allow you to see how well a couple of the activities work on your system. Every such world should offer something like this, but sadly, many don't. Unless you have a fairly new computer, I highly recommend only using online worlds that offer a trial or demo to make sure it'll work for you.

Besides the higher system requirements, multiplayer games would also add to the experience and make it feel more like a community instead of a single-player experience.

My biggest complaint about TyGirlz.com would be that, when my daughters play it, they don't want to stop for things like chores or meals, but I didn't exactly have to force them to play--even the 12-year-old really enjoys it, but she says she doubts anyone much older than her would like it.