Did you grow up with fashion dolls and did it fuel your interest in BJDs?

Absolutely. I mostly grew up with Barbies/Bratz dolls, then eventually moved into American Girl dolls, and then Pullips when I was older. After Pullips I discovered BJDs and I've been collecting them since.

 

I hated Barbies and such as a child. My sister was into Polly Pockets, but I never really touched them, and my aunt had various types of dolls around her house, although not BJDs. It wasn't until I saw BJDs at a convention in about 2013 or 2014 that I got into dolls. There was no jump from one doll to another for me.

 

When I was a toddler, I remember loving baby dolls, as a kid I had Cabbage patch, other baby dolls (including the ones who you could give “food” to lol), and barbies (I really did love my barbies a lot). As a teenager I liked porcelain dolls but that phase didn’t last too much and as a young adult I moved on to Pullip dolls. Thus, I feel that collecting bjds now makes total sense. Although I am extremely picky when it comes to bjds, I do think that my love for dolls throughout my life influenced me loving bjds.

 

Omg I think I had kind of the opposite experience.
I was a "gender nonconforming" kind of kid because I didn't really accept that I was a girl until 6th grade.
I tried to play dolls with my cousin often but she said I was "bad at it" since i wasnt very good at imaginary play. My toys were mostly legos, marbles, cars, trains, building blocks, and bug catching/housing stuff.
But once I got a doll as a gift and it had interchangeable hair and feet. It was so cool to customize. I started customizing the hair with all kinds of things and changing the outfits. I never "played" with the doll but loved dressing it up in different things and doing its makeup.
So when I found out about bjd when I was 13 i was in love.

 

...I guess, if your definition of fashion dolls is from about 1840.

One of my grandmothers thought proper toys for little girls were the kind of beautiful vinyl dolls she saw in catalogues circa 1996. She gifted me several, and I still treasure them.

The other grandmother thought I would enjoy one of those penny wooden dolls from a historical reenactment museum - the kind that is about 25cm tall, comes nude, is held together with some bits of string, and you're supposed to sew her a dress from the included pattern and bit of calico. It's the perfect toy for your pioneer child. I had some 1970s sewing patterns* and did, improbably, adore that doll. I sewed many dresses and played many games with her throughout elementary school. She still has a place of honor in my doll storage box.

Since ball jointed dolls are essentially the 21st century equivalent of my beloved wooden doll, the transition was inevitable.


*I lived a temporally confused childhood. I think I spent about ten years of it in 1999 with the occasional foray into 1840, 1950, and 1970.

 

Rebeccag12363, that sounds like a magical childhood!!

 

I had Barbies and American Girl dolls, but I think what really drove me was bitter doll resentment (weird as that sounds).

Growing up, I read a lot of 19th and early 20th century children's literature- Little Women, The Secret Garden, etc. Two of my favorite books, since I was already doll-crazy, were Hitty: Her First Hundred Years and A Little Princess. Both have lavish, incredible descriptions of Victorian and Edwardian dolls, and the vast array of garments, accessories, and furnishings made for them (they also both have some unfortunate racial stereotypes, Hitty more than ALP, but my mother sat me down and explained to me why those were wrong). A Little Princess even talks about a doll with a diamond tiara and real, tiny enamel opera glasses! Going from that back to my very basic Barbie dolls with their one or two flimsy, polyester outfits was...disappointing to say the least. American Girl was a bit better clothing-wise, but those were chubby and slightly vacant-looking child dolls. I always preferred dolls that looked like grown ladies.

So I spent my childhood searching for the One True Doll that would finally measure up to my dreams: a beautiful and clever-looking lady doll who would be so perfect that I'd never want another. Along the way I discovered articulated Barbies (I think mine was a ballerina in a hot-pink glittery tutu?) and added poseability to my very high standards. And eventually, around age 14, I ended up on the Dollfie Wikipedia page.

I know now that there's no such thing as a One True Doll; I love all of my dolls for different reasons. But I think that quest to find what 90s-00s play dolls lacked definitely led me to BJDs.

 

I was a really spoiled only child with tons of toys, many of which were dolls. My favorites were always animal toys though! Little figures, My Little Ponies, all other things horse, and just absolute piles of stuffed animals. Good times. My main doll memory is getting the fancy Holiday Barbie every Christmas. And this one I wish I still had, she like was a blond girl with gems in her eyes and all sorts of electronic light up pink jewelry?? Tiny me loved that thing. It was so shiny.

I think the BJD interest definitely grew more out of the figure collecting I started when I was older, though. Just really love having tiny versions of my favorite characters sitting on my shelves.

 

No, I had a few Barbies and an American Girl growing up but I was never really that interested in them. I grew up mostly with Littlest Pet Shops and My Little Ponies. Though I do remember getting a holiday Barbie for Christmas, opening it, and then my mom scolding me because "You're not supposed to open that kind of doll!" And then I got an American Girl doll, which is significantly more expensive than a holiday Barbie, and my parents would complain that I only ever displayed her instead of playing with the doll...

When I discovered BJDs after watching a review by Dollightful, I then developed an interest in BJDs. Although I still don't have much interest in most fashion dolls.

 

When I was a kid, I DESPISED dolls, hahaha. I had like zero interest in them and thought they were something only for girls and definitely not for me. Things changed, obviously, and I’ve grown to appreciate dolls, even though fashion dolls are still something really far from my liking.

 

Fashion dolls definitely were a step towards the BJD hobby for me!

Started out with barbies as a really little kid but when I discovered Monster High dolls around age 10 or so that became my obsession for a while. I loved the dress-up, the collecting miniature props, and all that, and I even tried sewing and photography, though I was expectedly bad at it.

After a while though I started wishing there was a more ideal, poseable, visually appealing doll, that wasn't so hard to customize (I'd had several failed re-rooting projects with MH dolls) and wasn't so tiny. I wanted to make custom dolls but MH mainly had fantasy skintones like blue and green, and my characters were humans, plus rerooting hair and redoing faceups didn't go well at that age.

I discovered Dollfie Dreams at some point after that, mainly due to my Vocaloid obsession leading me to see their Hatsune Miku collab doll, and then that became the new obsession into my teens. I dreamed of owning a Dollfie but the cost was not something my parent would ever pay. There were also some aspects of Dollfies that I didn't like at the time, mainly the joints / frame visibility.

Then at some point after that, I think around age 14 maybe, I discovered BJDs! Everything about them solved all the issues previous doll types had for me, and I thought they were just so beautiful, so I started trying to save money for one. I finally got one around when I became an adult and had more money at my disposal. Incidentally I also recently got my first Dollfie, and I no longer have the same gripes about the frame as I used to back then.

Overall, dolls and doll-related hobbies have always been a part of my life. I think BJD was sort of just another step in the evolution of how I enjoyed the doll hobby in general. The amazing customizability of BJD also made other doll-adjacent hobbies of mine like sewing and photography come back into my sphere of active hobbies, too.

 

I was very into dressing up my dolls and barbies when I was a kid! I think that is definitely one of the main draws for me to bjds; the ability to dress them up and customize them over and over!

 

I didn't have fashion dolls growing up, but I did have the paper "dress-up" dolls, and that really made me interested in BJDs when I saw them for the first time online. The customization and the idea of "creating your own character" was always super appealing to me. As a child, I did it with paper. As an adult, I do it with dolls!

 

I used to modify clothes for my barbies as a kid and that got me into sewing in general. Now I look forward to making BJD clothes!

 

I was actively scared of humanoid dolls as a child and only had stuffed animals, most of which I still have since they’re in good condition. I got into fashion doll customization through Dollightfull’s videos and it just snowballed from there.

 

Same boat! I got into Dollightfull when quarantine started but I did like dolls as a kid. Her videos just resparked that love and gave me a way to make my dolls even more special. BJDs feel like a natural next step to me!

 

I have always loved dolls. When I was a kid I loved paying with Barbies. I also went through a big Spice Girl phase and I had so many of their dolls. I played with them so much that a couple actually fell apart.

I then went on to collecting Lord of the Ring dolls, which lead to BJD. And now I’m back to collecting Barbies and other play line dolls (Such as Rainbow High and Monster High).

 

yes yes yes absolutely! ive been doll obsessed my entire life and barbie was definitely who started it lol

 

Yeah, I grew up with a sizeable Barbie collection and always wished they had more joints! When I was in late high school or early college (2005-2007), I somehow came across BJDs (honestly can't remember how now) and was so impressed with not only the high quality sculpts, but all the points of articulation!

I just recently got into collecting fashion dolls again and have 3 Rainbow High dolls (bought second hand). I am pleasantly surprised by how far fashion dolls have come since I was a kid in the 90s!

 

I wasn't allowed "Barbies" (super conservatives upbringing). I did have like 2 of them, and then 3 Disney playline fashion dolls. But they're a footnote in my memories of toys, so I wouldn't say they were a driving force. My main toy choice as a kid was My Little Ponies, and other 'female' aligned toys. I dearly loved my stuffed animals growing up and they had clothing made for them, and also all had names and personalities. When I hit 9 years old I got my first American Girl Doll...

I would say being open and enjoying dolls and stuffed animals allowed me to be interested in BJD's but ultimately the biggest factor was my interest in 'miniature' items. I've always loved tiny things: Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shop, Sylvanian Families etc... so when I saw PukiPuki's and other very small tiny dolls, that's when I wanted to get into the hobby and started my collection with tinies, gradually getting larger in size. I still love props and things for my dolls, probably more than the clothing, wigs and other items needed for 'complete' dolls. Honestly clothing is the biggest nightmare for me with BJD's I just am not interested in it, I only do it because it would be weird to post naked dolls with a cute miniature cup of coffee I found at Daiso.