To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. The online metaverse and social networking site IMVU grew by 44 percent during the pandemic; it now attracts 7 million active users a month, most of them female or female-identifying and aged from 18 to 24. If you aren’t one of those millions, here’s a primer: On IMVU, users create personal avatars and dress them in clothes designed by fellow users—creators, in site parlance—bought with credits paid for with real money. The point of IMVU is to connect virtually with friends and to potentially make new ones, but shopping is no small part of the site’s attraction. IMVU’s virtual store features 50 million items made by over 200,000 creators. Fourteen billion in credits, or $14 million, exchanges hands in over 27 million transactions each month. “I shop therefore I am,” as Barbara Kruger put it in her famous 1990 artwork, takes on new resonance in this digital world.