Did you play with dolls as a child?

Not really!

I wasn't really into "make-believe" with human characters. I was way more interested in animals, particularly cats. I played a LOT with stuffed animals and small plastic animals.

I don't feel particularly self-conscious about liking dolls -- mostly because I have pretty narrow taste.

 

Quetz, I was like you in my childhood. My parents gave me dolls but i hated them. I could accept some bears and rabbits but never dolls. I liked cars (especially those realistic ones, made of metal and looking like replicas of the real ones), I had war cars and building kits. And it was lots of fun. My family mates were really surprised when I said I'm buying a doll. But even now I don't think of bjd as dolls. They are sculptures, models to me. I think of them more like I would think of a sculptor's works.

 

I was a tomboy but I still liked me some dolls and action figures. I usually had the ninja turtles save a giant group of rubber banded together babies from cobra commander. Or I would have them be eaten by my piranha transformer.

My favorite was my American girl doll since she was bigger and I could style her hair a bit. I tried putting makeup on her once (real stuff). Didn't work out to well of course but I manager to get it off without staining her. I think she is still somewhere around here I a box.

 

I was always more of a collector of sorts. My dolls sat around looking pristine in their poses whereas my sister's dolls looked like they like they had been dragged through town by a pack of wild dogs.

 

Did you play with dolls as a child? Yes, I had a fairly large collection of Barbies and doll houses.

Why or why not? I was a very imaginative and creative child since I was often left playing alone (I was an only child in the care of my grandmother). I loved making stories and re-enacting them with my dolls. I had quite a lot and most of them came from Japan.

If yes, did your childhood love of dolls get you into BJDs or was it something else? To be honest, no. My love for Barbies or dolls in general diminished as I grew older and had more responsibilities put on my back. I just recently got back into loving it when I realized that it wasn't a crime to be young every now and then

 

I never played with dolls until I started collecting vintage ones at age 16

 

I didn't play dolls when I was a child. I love toy cars, lego and dressed like a boy.
I don't know why, I became more and more girly as I grown up and started to play beautiful dolls after I became an adult.
I think it is quite surprising to my family...

 

Even though I was a tomboy I did love my one and only Barbie doll, I started making her clothes when I was about 10 and never really stopped. Luckily my family never thought it was too strange that I always had a doll around the house. I moved onto Tonner dolls and then about 11 years ago when I started seeing pictures of BJD's I knew I had found my happy place.

 

Oh no. I despised them. I am the oldest but I have brothers. I hated them. Any I got we would take the heads off and do other terrible things. I did not know at the time the trouble a relative went through to get me a Cabbage Patch Kid (I just aged myself) but I hated her with a passion. And the Raggedy Ann I had since birth - we used her as a sparring partner. I so cannot understand the change of heart.

 

Yup, I did occasionally play with them (Barbies mostly). I got them as gifts a lot so I had quite a few. (In fact, I received so many my dad had so build a shelf that ran across one whole wall just to have somewhere to keep them)
I enjoyed changing their clothing styles and sometimes even cut their hair (though, I would be scolded for doing so afterwards ). Though, I then had phobia of them when I got a doll that was 90 cm (it stayed in the corner of my room and I felt like it was always watching me...waiting...).
I don't think my "love" for dolls got me into the hobby though. I only played with them because I had no one to play with and they were all I had at the moment. I got into the hobby because of the customization which, I suppose, is what Barbies and my dolls lacked.

 

I loved playing with barbies when I was little. I loved dressing them up, and throwing them off high places. Confusing, I know. My childhood love for dolls did not get me into BJDs, I was actually scrolling through my dash on Tumblr. and came across a beautiful doll, and I was just sold.

 

Well, I was a Barbie kid. I got my first Barbie when I was around 5 years and in the end, I had like... 25 or so. And a lot of additional things (a house, cars, horses, stuff like that) Sadly, I don't have any of them anymore, but even back then I loved when there were finally Barbies with more joints than just the hips, shoulders and neck (which was the standard when I was a kid) so I might say they influenced me a bit, yes, but I guess the real reason that got me into this is that I find the much more asthetically pleasing than other dolls and I just love them.

 

I actually didn't like dolls when I was a child. I thought they were kinda creepy and boring. My grandma would always give me dolls but i just gave them to one of my friends.

 

I did play with Barbie dolls, but didn't really get into BJDs or dolls. I think that was mostly because my mom would buy those special edition Barbie dolls and say it's for my sisters and me but that we can't play with it at all. The reason I got into this was because I thought the way the BJDs are made are cool and they're pretty and different from Barbie dolls.

 

When I was younger, I had a lot of Barbie dolls. In fact, almost every time we went to a toy store, I'd end up buying one.
I guess the aspect of Barbie that I really liked when I was younger was how fashionable they were. I guess I ended up buying most of my dolls because of the clothes they wore, instead of their faces, seeing as most of them just look alike. There's not much variation in them at all.
I also collected non-bjd dolls like Pullips before [and I still have them now], so I guess I've always been quite fond of dolls, so one way or another, I would probably end up in this hobby. At least, that's what I like to think.

 

I had an insane amount of play dolls as a kid.
Of course all of them are long gone now,I do have three monster high dolls though,I intend to have them repainted whenever I get around to commissioning someone.

 

I did. I still have the Barbie my uncle found on the beach near my house (she got a good cleaning, don't worry!) and a few others. I was really shy about them though, like I never made them talk. I did it in my head. I felt self conscious doing it out loud. I still have mental conversations with my stuffed animals and my BJDs. It's always been something I do, and I still worry sometimes about hurting feelings! xD

 

I loved dolls as a kid, and have always loved them. Whether they were cloth, figurines, or BJDs, they always appealed to me.

 

I was a huge fan of dolls as a kid. I would spend hours playing with them. I don't seem to have outgrown it either. Oh well.

 

I was big on Barbie when I was little. We had a playroom that my sister and I could set up our Barbie World and leave it set up for days. My mom used to sit and sew outfits for our dolls and went a little overboard on buying us all of the stuff that went with her. When I had daughters I was so happy to get to play dolls again.

I know that is part of the appeal of BJD for me. I really enjoy the play and pure happiness of owning a doll. It brings back an easier time for me.

So is anyone on this post old enough to remember the fashion dolls we got back in the 70's. They were very large, had a nylon type material over their limbs and usually were dressed in lace and ruffles and had big fancy hair and makeup. They looked a lot like the character of Jessica/Mrs. Clause in the xmas movie "Santa Clause is coming to town"