By JanMarie Sands

There are a huge number of games and activities online that we love. But easily one of the best of these are the dress up girls. A digital form of Barbie dolls, the dress up girls are fashionable and fun to play, but that is not the only reason we love them so.

Dress Up Girls Are Creative

There are only so many activities online that you can legitimately claim as creative. Dress up girls fall into this category easily. To play the games you will select a doll base that often looks a great deal like a Barbie doll and then start selecting fashions for her online. This gives you endless choices and variety about how to piece together her different looks. The fun never ends because there are truly no limits to how many different outfits you can create. Piece one together and save it. Then pull another one together and send it to a friend. Endless. Really.

Dress Up Girls Make For Good Conversation

If you and your friends are looking for something to work on together, dress up games are exactly what you need. To play together, you can actually sit down together at a computer and dress a doll or you can be at different corners of the world ready to challenge each other to a design contest. To make the dolls, you can choose a certain game and both "players" make a particular sort of outfit or design. After a set time limit, share your creation with the friend and enjoy the experience. You might discover the secret or talent of your friend in designing things like this. It is definitely an adventure.

Dress Up Girls Have Plenty of Variety

If there was ever a game with variety, dress up girls are it. The games range from dressing up babies and little girls to dressing up celebrities with literally everything in between. In a single afternoon, you can dress up elves, you can dress up fairies, you can dress up pixies, dwarfs, witches, princesses and fairy godmothers. You can also have a typical looking girl where you can practice fashion ideas that might actually work on your own clothing style and body type.

Dress Up Girls Help You Be Fashionable

The nicest thing about dress up girls is how much you can benefit from playing them in a fashion sense. To a certain extent, you can plan your wardrobe and even plan your fashions for the next seasons by playing the games. Pick a doll that looks a lot like you. Then look through all of the current, fashionable items that you can use to create a new look. Pull together outfits that you really like and you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you can do and plan and see working in this way in regard to finding out what really works for you and what does not.

By Erin Petersson

Dress up games are one of the favorite activities of girls online. This is not accidental. Girls especially love dress up games for several reasons - some of which you might not immediately consider when thinking of playing various fashion games online. Creativity, community and fashion are the central reasons girls love these games, but it goes far beyond pretty colors and design.

Creativity and Dress Up Games

There are not many games online that allow total creativity on the part of the player. Designing something is one of the most entertaining ways to spend time online and it is one of the most creative. When you follow the steps or path designed for you by the game's designer, you are missing out on an opportunity to chart your own course. This is exactly what you are able to do by playing dress up games.

When you play the games, you have the option to choose a doll base and then dress her according to your whims and desires. The final product is a fashion plate to be proud of, but that is not all that happens. Behind the scenes, your brain is working overtime creating a background for each doll that you make. Each tends to have a purpose and a design and finding the right elements for the doll lets your mind work in ways it might not get to very often.

Playing the dress up games often includes an additional written component. More often than not, the girl who designed a full story for the character she was designing goes ahead and writes down the story to share the story with others.

Community and Dress Up Games

There is a strong community among those who love fashion games. Some websites feature not only large numbers of games for members or visitors to try, they also include forums and messages to share ideas and thoughts with other members. Being able to share ideas and commentary on designs, stories and just the news as it relates to the young ladies is huge.

Communication is always important for young women, and online the same is true. Finding opportunities to share with friends online lets girls expand their horizons and learn to function within a community setting. These computer and internet social skills will serve them well into the future as well.

Fashion and Dress Up Games

Dress up games take fashion a step further. Normally you can read about fashion and see what others have pulled together in fashion magazines or fashion sites, but being able to create your own fashion, especially on celebrities included in many of the games, is a welcome treat for those who much prefer doing to simply seeing.

Playing with fashion has the added benefit of learning some basics of art including colors, style and patterns simply though practice. With a reduced emphasis on the arts in the classroom, this is a welcome change for most young girls.