Good-Bye Ruth

Recently, I convinced a female friend of mine to try out Second Life.  I sat beside her to guide her through the sign up and log in process.  I knew that the old Ruth was replaced with a choice of mesh avatars, but I didn't realize how bad they looked or how difficult they were to work with.  Her first words were "Eww, I'm so ugly and this dress is horrible".  Ok, it's a freebie and Ruth was no Miss America.  But Ruth was totally customizable.  With some effort you could change the shape and face completely and then get a new skin, hair and some clothing.  You could always find a bargain or sale and with minimal cost, you could look half way decent.  These new mesh starter avatars do not have the shape changing options and you can not wear regular clothes and the mesh options in the library are not very good.  No alpha layers so they are all ill fitting and don't get me started on the shoes.  I always find that it's easiest when you first start a new avatar to buy a "Complete Avatar" set.  One that's not expensive but still looks good enough not to get ribbed at clubs as a Noob.  So we got on MP and found a very pretty complete avatar without hair for L$200.00 from Noya Designs.  We found some nice hair and began the transformation.  You can not put on the regular shape and skin over the starter mesh avatars and you can not take off the mesh avatar.  Your only option is to Ruth! In Avatar Appearance, Test Character, Female.  Only then were we allowed to wear the Noya shape and skin.  This makes me worry about new comers to SL.  I have been on SL for years, but if I had just started with no knowledge at all.  I would be lost and turned off.