As the company seeks to engage with female gamers, Dove has established a training course to make gaming avatars more representative and inclusive. Unilever collaborated with the Center for Appearance Research, which studies the influence of appearance and body image on people’s lives, to have game creators produce a broader range of avatars and prevent the hypersexualisation of female characters. The training consists of six 10-minute sessions, and the completed avatars will be accessible in a free character gallery on Epic Games’ Art Station, a 3D creation programme. Dove will also support a series of prizes and awards for the top designers, as well as the potential for their avatars to appear in future games. Dove has collaborated with Toya, a female-founded and managed Roblox company, to develop SuperU Story, a Roblox game geared at increasing self-esteem and body confidence in young female players. The Center for Appearance Research specialists validated the game.

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