Laguna Beach’s Makena Technologies, which operates the virtual world of There.com, kicked off today’s Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo with news that it enticed a top teen magazine brand to build an exclusive online hang out.

Rival Second Life may have the IBM Business Center and Cisco’s Sun Pavilion, but only in There.com will you find CosmoGIRL! Village, opening in There on Nov. 20.

Makena — which also supports MTV’s virtual worlds of Newport Harbor, Laguna Beach and The Hills — plans to integrate CosmoGIRL! Village into its existing There.com universe, where visitors must be at least 13 years old. For MTV’s stuff, users can only go to MTV virtual worlds, not There.com.

However, Makena created a special coastal area to plunk down CosmoGIRL! Village, which will be heavy on teeny-bop lifestyle. Think dance parties, fashion shows, makeovers and, of course, shopping! There.com promises “real-world clothing and accessories,” which probably means cartoon-renditions from real-world designers.

Whether teens will log in remains to be seen. But There.com cites research from eMarketer, reporting that 24 percent of 34.3 million children and teens online visit a virtual world at least once a month. That number is projected to grow to 53 percent by 2011.

“There.com is all about fashion, socialization and shared activities, which aligns perfectly with the main interests of CosmoGIRL!’s readers,” said Michael Wilson, CEO of Makena Technologies in a statement.

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