Women and girls at both ends of the age spectrum are coddling up to online gaming.

Overall, females playing online games in August grew 27 percent compared with a year ago to nearly 43 million, according to comScore. The number of players in the 12-17 year-old category and 55-64 age segment grew at substantially faster rates: 55 percent for the younger group and 43 percent for the older one.

Here’s an explanation from a comScore press release issued Monday:

“Contributing to strong growth in the category among younger girls is the increasing popularity of fashion and dress-up sites, such as Stardoll.com, DressUpGames.com, and I-Dressup.com, and virtual worlds such as Neopets and Gaiaonline.com. Meanwhile, the growth among older females is in part due to partnerships between women’s content portals and casual game sites, such as iVillage.com’s partnership with Pogo.com games.”

By Mark Boslet, Editor at Large.