Did you play with dolls as a child?

I loved Barbies when I was a kid. I remember when I was having a hard time sleeping I would lay all of them out and brush there hair (making it perfect I would tell myself) and then redress each on of them in different outfits until I eventually fell asleep. I stopped playing with barbies when I was around 10 I think and didn't really pick up another doll until I was 23. I don't know what it was exactly that drew me to BJDs. I saw a picture online and was just mesmerized. They definitely are like a more customizable barbie doll...and I guess now, when I can't sleep I come up with stories or ideas for my doll now

 

I loved my Tiny Tears when I was little. I taught myself to hand sew, to make it clothes as my Mother didn't sew. I bought myself an original Barbie back in 1959, with money saved from my allowance. My Dad was in the Canadian military and in 1962, my Mother packed up all our stuff for another move, while my brother & I were in school. Our stuff was in storage for 3 yrs while we joined Dad in Germany. So I didn't learn for 3 yrs that she'd thrown out my Barbie! I'm fairly sure that had nothing to do with me falling in love with the very first bjd I ever saw.

 

Did you play with dolls as a child?
Yes.... I've always loved dolls and tiny figures and anything that's a miniature version of something "real", and always enjoyed constructing miniatures and tiny replicas of big things.
If yes, did your childhood love of dolls get you into BJDs or was it something else?
I suppose my interest in BJDs did grow pretty naturally out of my lifelong interest in dolls. I never "grew out" of dolls, but what I wanted to do with them grew and developed. As I got more into sewing for them, customizing them, photographing them, and using them as more of a creative medium, my ideas got more and more complex, and I started looking around for a doll that could actually accommodate all the things I wanted to do. BJDs were absolutely perfect!

 

The only dolls I found myself really interested in playing with as a child were Strawberry Shortcake or small plush dolls because the size felt right with other toys I collected and I liked the cuteness. I found most baby dolls too large and unmanageable. Barbie seemed only a decoration to me but a friend who liked her would collect Ken and her wardrobe and play now doesn't like dolls at all.

 

I used to play a lot with Barbies and Bratz, I have 2 big boxes kept in the box room full of dolls and accesories. But when I grew up, suddenly I hated dolls in general...xD Now I'm more mature, and still don't like those usual dolls (don't hate xD) but when I discovered BJDs, I saw them so interesting and different, I simply fell in love

 

So many Barbies X_X. I'd have a box of them in the bottom of my wardrobe, next to my big box of Lego. I don't think I really had anything else, except maybe for a Cindy, and a few Polly in my Pockets, which I don't think count ^_^;. I do collect figures though, born from my love of videogames. BJDs are very different, and I'm not sure if my admiration for them grew out of my history with dolls.

 

I loved playing with dolls when I was younger. Unfortunately I had a few friends who had a larger doll collection and I always wanted to go to their houses just to play with their dolls, but they never wanted to do that. >.< So that sucked. I stopped playing with dolls probably in 7th grade, found out about BJD's in 9th grade and got my first doll in 11th grade.

 

I loved dolls and miniatures! I used to make complex multi room houses out of tissue boxes with furniture made from card. I had all kinds of tiny things but I sold them all.
I still have my American Girl doll. I gave away all my Bratz and Barbies.

 

I have always loved dolls for as long as I can remember... I had barbies, bratz, My Scene, dollhouses, etc etc... And I was also introduced to Bjds when I was still a child, so I'm not sure if this counts, haha, but in short - yep, always loved them and always will~ ^^

 

Kind of weird but I didn't play with dolls when I was younger, I didn't care for them at all!

 

I played with Barbie dolls when I was a kid. I grew out of it when I became a teenager, but funnily enough went back to Barbies after I graduated high school when I saw a former classmate collecting them. From there I got into the 16-inch fashion dolls, and it was from a fashion doll site that I'd first learned about BJD's.

I didn't really play with baby dolls when I was young so the first BJDs I saw didn't interest me (this was when the popular dolls have really big heads and big eyes, and they have a childlike look to them). It wasn't until I saw Iplehouse's Akando that I learned BJD's can look realistic and adult, and that's how I got into this branch of the dolly hobby.

 

I was never into baby dolls (I remember receiving one of those baby dolls with a carrier; I put my 101 dalmation puppies in there instead and took them everywhere) but I was into Barbies quite a bit. I remember I had one of those big long tupperware things that would slide under my bed full of Barbies and their accessories. I was pretty spoiled when it came to them; I never had the big dream houses, but I had a couple of the smaller ones, the RV, cars, the airplane...etc. When I got a little older I went through a dinosaur-loving phase, so I had dinosaurs cohabitating with them for awhile. After awhile I drifted from Barbies and got into collecting Breyer horses instead. Probably around 12-13 I stopped being interested in toys altogether.

 

I always loved dolls....I never had very many, maybe one baby doll and one composite (oops my age is showing) and later a Barbie in the first year they were out, but they were the world to me. I had a weird childhood and had a friend who also, had a weird family and we would sit on top of my bunkbed for hours playing that we were adults and had interesting lives. I would snatch my sisters storybook dolls bc she didn't like them, but she wouldn't give them to me. To this day I love the smell of a new doll.

I have three daughters, none of whom liked dolls (only plushies). When they got older they laughed when I told them 'if you had liked dolls, you could have had everything, anything'!! Shopping for toys, I always went down the doll aisle to see what was new. As much as I like to look at them I never felt the need to own one.

Then, one night by accident, I looked at artwork on Etsy that referred to manga and the dolls that peeps used to draw them. I followed a link to youtube and found abjd's. I was hooked (doomed) when I saw someone opening and then customizing a Fairyland doll.

 

I had a lot of dolls as a kid, and lots of stuffed animals. Gosh I even had those polly pockets which are tiny dolls in tiny worlds you can close and carry around in your pockets. I used to come up with stories and play them out with my dolls and stuffed animals and according to my mom I used to play with my fork and spoon like I played with my dolls. But somewhere along the lines I started getting porcelain dolls, dolls meant for collecting only. I still have all of them now, I can see them from my desk. So I guess I just consider BJDs as the best of both worlds, collectable yet I'm still able to create stories and "play" with them.

 

I always played with Barbies with my sister (:
But we weren't as careful with them :P

And then came Bratz and MyScene's. So we had a whole lot of dolls we played with!

 

It's funny...I didn't, not that much - or at least not in the way that people would think. My mom hated Barbies because of the self-esteem issues she thought they'd cause, but she bought me an American Girl doll. I never really played with that doll; she was just a model for clothes. That's all ANY of my childhood dolls were - clothes models! (I could use a sewing machine by the time I was six, so I was making clothes early on.)

I never realized this, but I really "play" way more with dolls now that I'm into BJD. ^_^

 

Mostly I just collected doll staff (shoes, dress, interior things and others) and was very carryfull with entire doll.
I always made some doll world and story: usually it was something real, like citylife. I didn't like any magician things.

 

I had lots of barbies and a barbie mansion. But most of the time I would try to create oriental stuff for them to wear because the clothes they get suck. So yeah...I liked fantasy stuff a lot more.

 

I used to "play Barbies" with my sister, but actually, she played with the Barbies. I built them houses, stores, restaurants, and cars out of wood scraps and random junk.

I mean, I'm becoming an engineer, so I guess that isn't super surprising. But I also love dolls now.

 

I did play with dolls... The usual, and others too. Hm. I tried to make some little toy dolls to play with at one point, but my favorite playing was with legos, use them to make a person, build a town and home and yard for them with my sister... In general, I really just like to make things. So this is a great hobby!

It's very interesting though, to see the many directions people can grow.