Why Nikki I had no idea!
I've been in SL since early April. I know more than the average person ingame 4 months, but that still isn't saying much. I spent the first 2 months flying around and exploring. I rented a plot on a friend's island for a decent price to experiment and evolve my building.
Now the rental has a modest pool shop on the lawn and a tiki treehouse for watching video and to place future vends. I own 2048 on Mainland which has my cartoon art gallery, 7 seas fishing in orange soda, and a cottage a la kinkade. I don't think I have enough prim allowance for furniture LOL. Anyway, after having been crowded out of my 512 tier land by opportunists, I wanted some padding.
There's a Stargate in the yard, so I get frequent wanderers.
About your question re Appearance
My alt experiments with clothing and appearance. You can save what you look like as an outfit, then literally click and drag the clothing folder of that name over yourself inworld to look like that again if you want to change back.
Go to the Library in your Inventory and check out the Clothing folder. You'll find a gaggle of appearances. Try them and watch yourself morph. They used to even have furries, but they removed them for some reason. That's okay: try the gamer girl, try the cardboard box, try the boy next door...