Second Life's Simone Stern (pictured left) has made a name for herself as the luminary entrepreneur behind Simone! Designs, but she's also trying to raise at least $50,000 for Ayeshe Millions, a friend afflicted with tumors in South Africa, so Millions can come to New York for treatment.



I met with Second Life fashion designer Simone Stern to interview her before an iVillage fashion show scheduled to take place on Monday night in Second Life (I'll be attending with various real life celebrities...check back for links to a column that will appear in the Huffington Post next week), and to thank her for a gorgeous dress that she gave me to wear to the event.

While Stern's rise to fame as a virtual fashion designer is a stellar example of the role of creativity in the new economy, I was far more impressed with her role as a compassionate philanthropist as she seeks to raise money for the treatment of Ayeshe Millions, a friend of Stern's in SL who is afflicted with inoperable tumors.

The concept of "friendship" is one of the most intriguing to arise from the advent of virtual worlds. I had never met my Huffington Post editor Romi Lassally in real life, before we found ourselves posing for naked pictures together in Second Life to compare the development of our fledgling avatar bodies. We live on opposite coasts, and as my friendship with her avatar, Phoebe Wunderland, began to take flight in virtual reality, I wondered if we might have the same chemistry in person. When we recently met, we were both equally amazed at the actual reality of the other, as if our endlessly evolving avatars really were the physical representations of ourselves. Later that night, as I was drifting off into a dream, a hint of Romi's sweet perfume still lingered and provided a perfect excuse to further ponder this marvelous new territory into which we've wandered.

So how does Simone Stern know that Ayeshe Millions isn't some scam artist in South Africa looking to take advantage of the good nature of an unwitting dupe? Because, Stern says, there are medical records, doctors and MRI's involved. Ayeshe Millions requires treatment, and there's no time for games. In Simone Stern she has found an ally, a person who does not need to know what she looks like to know that a real-live human being's life can be greatly enriched, or even saved, by her willingness to suspend the normal social rules geared at limiting the richness of our connections by categorizing people based on gender, wealth, age, beauty and race.

Because Simone Stern makes a living completely through her Second Life business, she can work anywhere, and when the day comes that enough money has been raised to transport Ayeshe Millions from South Africa to New York, Simone plans to relocate temporarily from Indianapolis to provide comfort and care for her friend, a woman she has never met in person.