Dove has always championed Real Beauty, breaking unrealistic beauty standards and celebrating real women with diverse body types. Since 2004, the Dove Self-Esteem Project (DSEP) has become the world's largest self-esteem education provider, empowering girls with tools to build self-esteem and body confidence.
However, the world is evolving. More girls are entering the virtual world of gaming, with an estimated 60% starting video games before age 10. While gaming offers positive influences like new connections and self-expression, the portrayal of women in video games isn’t always positive.
Female characters in games often fail to represent the world's diverse gamers, frequently appearing heavily sexualised and conforming to narrow, unrealistic beauty standards. A significant 74% of girls desire game characters to look more like real women, raising parental concerns about this representation's impact on young gamers.
Introducing Real Virtual Beauty
This is why we're extending our mission to the virtual world. Dove is entering the gaming sphere with the global launch of Real Virtual Beauty, a series of commitments challenging online beauty representation and advancing self-esteem education in the virtual realm.
Our mission
We've formed a coalition of allies across the gaming industry, including Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and Women in Games. Our Real Virtual Beauty Coalition aims to educate and empower game developers to create healthier, more diverse representation of girls and women in gaming globally. Our ambition is diverse video game characters. We're building a global character art collection, freely accessible to developers, that appropriately represents female characters in gaming. Additionally, we're launching the Real Beauty in Games Training programme – an online course to educate developers, creators, and artists on beauty and diversity in gaming.
Real Beauty in Games Training
Gamers seek true-to-life diversity, even in fantasy gaming, yet female representation in video games, particularly avatar creation, needs improvement. Featuring modules developed with the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR), the Dove Self Esteem Project (DSEP), and industry experts, this course teaches creators to avoid unconscious bias in avatar development. This empowers female players to redefine their representation in the gaming experience. The coalition and training programme are part of our collaborative effort to galvanise industry innovators, providing them with essential tools and skills to build a more inclusive online world, now and for the future.
The Real Virtual Beauty character art collection
Following this training, Dove and Epic Games are launching the Real Virtual Beauty character art collection, dedicated to broadening representation and increasing inclusivity in gaming. We invite gaming creators and developers to participate, fostering creative individuality and evolving self-representations in the avatar world. Dove will provide grants and awards to top creators, funding and expanding their impactful work.
Let’s Transform Gaming Representation
Together with our partners, Real Virtual Beauty can lead the way in transforming gaming into a positive and inclusive space for women and girls.
