Did you play with dolls as a child?

even though i had short hair all my life up until a few years ago, i have always been really girly, and i played with dolls, a lot... but i was pretty alone in it... its pretty hard to make friends out in the middle of nowhere. but now i think i like them because i used to love to use sharpie on my old dolls (never will i do that with a BJD might i add) but i loved to customize them!

 

I always have! I started with baby dolls and worked my way up to American girl dolls and Barbies

 

I played with baby dolls, Barbies, and American Girl dolls a bit but mostly I liked my stuffed animals and action figures. I was a bit of a tom boy and tended to butcher my white Barbies (cutting hair, giving tattoos, etc.)... not sure what I had against them! Haha.

 

I only played with plushies because I didn't care much for Barbie. I still don't, but I really like some bjds. There's a difference between dolls and dolls I think :3

 

Surprisingly, not really. I didn't have the type of dolls that would naturally seem to lead to these (more adult looking) like (don't kill me) barbies.
I did, however, have an American Girl Bitty Baby that I adored. I don't think I even named it or gave it a gender, but I did love it a lot.

 

Did you play with dolls as a child?→Yes. Then again I also played with Lego, Hot Wheels, action figures, and trading cards so.
Why or why not?→ It's just one of those things your folks buy you when you're little.
If yes, did your childhood love of dolls get you into BJDs or was it something else?→Nope; after a while I absolutely hated dolls because I grew up with Barbies. I thought dolls were just some weird girly hobby or something. I found out about BJDs myself and instantly fell in love with them. So now I'll jump at someone if they put down dolls and tell them that not all dolls are the same and some are absolutely beautiful. ^^;;;:;

 

Much as the OP, my barbies ended up on the back of estees rockets or dangling beneath kites. I "tried" to play with dolls when I was younger, I amassed my collection of the super pose-able gymnast dolls and made stop motion photography with them but just couldn't bring my self to engage in imaginative play with them, especially since my lil G.I. Joe had a cool little hover pad thing that he could "fly" on not to mention his pet dragon (from another toy line entirely). Girly dolls seemed so limited to tea parties and beauty salons... no real adventure. BJD's on the other hand the sky is the limit and their story is open-ended.

 

As a child I was a tomboy and actually enjoyed being one, so much so that I considered that I had a reputation to hold, LOL. So in public I was short haired, climbing trees and playing Star Wars games etc. At home however I had a rag doll that I adored and on family trips out she went everywhere with me.

I had many dolls after her and each one always had to be extra special because I still wouldn't admit to having a doll. As I got older it seemed odd to have a doll at all but I still had at least one. Then I discovered BJD's on the internet by accident and saved up for my first... Second... Third... LOL

I just sold some and I still have 12 at home that hold a special place. And no, most of my friends still don't know I have dolls, LOL.

 

only child so had girly toys as a kid. when i went to Grandma's house i got to play with everything else. i didn't really get into them till i had my Daughter. My Son hated getting action figures with crappy paint jobs and lo the customization bug was born. and what can i say? i found the ultimate customization doll

 

I loved my dolls because I was an only child. I used to pretend they were my sisters. Eventually I "grew out of them" and then, years later, I grew out of growing out of them!

 

When I was small, I loved Barbies, but was scared of every other dolls, especially the big ones. Barbie was my dream doll until I was 14 when my family could afford one, and I was overjoy. I played with her until I got into highschool after which I stopped. It was not until after college did I started playing with dolls again.

 

When I was little I liked playing with dolls but I prefered car toys. I started playing with them more when I got older. I loved my Barbie back then and I still do but unfortunately there's only one left from my childhood.

 

Oh yeah, total tomboy here as a child!! I resisted the whole "girly" thing as a kid as much as possible; still do now, as a matter of fact! My parents never really bough me a lot of dolls. I remember I did have Undersea Ariel doll that I took with me to my bath tube several times when I was in 2nd grade, and I did have a black Princess Barbie of some sort for Christmas a little later...... but after that, not a lot of dolls! Even my sister got a few, but she secretly wanted GI Joes instead! Not to mention I got a NES that same Christmas as the Barbie, so she quickly took second place as I began my video game fandom! >_<

When I started into this hobby, I did have this feeling of unease that people who had known me for sometime, or even complete strangers would look at me and say "Wait, you like dolls now?? You're such a girl!?" Luckily, that never really happened, and I got over the feeling quick when I got my first. It was then I realized that it's not about if certain activities make you feminine or masculine, it's about what you as a person enjoys! Plus the fact that the dolls will finally let me make certain costumes/looks and tell stories in my own way.... well, creationist dream right there!

 

I was a very pink, frilly kind of little girl until I hit about 7 and began to run around in baseball caps and sand down car parts with my dad. I may have developed a distaste for pink but I always loved and treasured my dolls - from my literally hundreds of Barbies to my toddler doll Lucy, who has gorgeous long blonde hair and blue eyes. I still have all of my old dolls and most of them are in amazing condition because I've always been careful with my things and I didn't want to 'hurt' them.

My friends know about my dolls and still occasionaly exclaim at a sarcastic, blunt person like me naming dolls and squealing over their clothes.

 

I had a bunch of dolls when I was a kid. Lots of barbies, and American Girl Josephina, waldorf dolls, I loved them! I took a long break though before collecting BJDs. I haven't had dolls in a long time, but I also think that it's a slightly different concept. To me, Barbies are to carry around, take baths with, eat dinner with, and carry around the store with. BJD's are to dress up, take photos of, and quiet companionship, as I'm deathly afraid of breaking mine. I think I had to mature enough to actually appreciate a BJD

 

I had lots and lots of dolls growing up and still have most of them. (With the exception of my GIJoe doll that my brother set on fire) I loved them then, and love them now!!

 

I owned a Barbie and Cindy doll with a wonderful dollhouse and extras - but I hardly played with them... I prefered to play with my brother's Big Jim dolls, they had such lovely specials like grappling hook arm or changing normal head to a glowing skeleton face

 

Not really. I never cared much for dolls and I only got barbies, since those were cheap and replacable. The barbies I had ended up with "modifications" or as food for my dinosaur toys, since I didn't care much for them. The only barbie I ever kind of liked was able to bend her arms and legs, like an action figure. I liked those a lot more. ^^

 

barbies, baby dolls, and my little ponies abound! and I was very much in to the she-ra franchise and had a lot of the figures and the castle! (total 80's kid)

 

I had an obscene ammount of dolls as a child. My aunt owned a doll store so she sent me porcelein a lot. I still have them, and use their dresses for Allegra. I also had buckets of barbies and an embarassing ammount of American Girl dolls. HOWEVER. I never. Ever. Played with them. My friend introduced me to BJDs. My family makes fun of me and says I'm regressing in age.