Did you play with dolls as a child?

No. I hated dolls as a kid because the only ones that I ever really saw were baby dolls (even when I was little I had no interest in those) and Barbies. I didn't like Barbies because the Barbie doll herself has hot pink as her favorite color. I have never cared for hot pink, and too many of the blond Barbie dolls came with hot pink clothes or shoes or accessories.

I like BJDs because you can customize them how you want. No painted on eyes or pre-rooted hair or things like that. I also like how their stuff is nicer. If you buy shoes for a BJD, it actually feels and looks like real shoes, just smaller. Barbie shoes are shoe-shaped pieces of plastic generally.

 

I didn't play with dolls much when I was a kid. I think I only ever had one Barbie doll, and I had just happened to get it because of a Christmas gift-swapping game. I did have a Cabbage Patch doll, too, but later on I found out my mom had waited hours in line to get it signed by Xavier Roberts, and I was like... "you let me play with that??"

I think I started liking dolls more when I got into anime and seeing the merchandise that came with them. For some reason, I preferred the body and face styles over what I see in the toy aisles here. So that lead me into getting the vinyl jointed dolls, and that progressed into looking into the resin ones.

 

I had barbies and baby dolls when I was little, but they never got touched. I was too busy playing with dinosaurs and toy cars and reading Harry Potter to care about dolls. Then as I got a little older I got into the arts, drawing, dance, and writing. Eventually I found my passion in photography, which led me to deviantArt, where I started noticing these beautiful little dolls. I started researching them, and that's how I got into the BJD hobby.

 

I was not a huge doll fan when I was a child, but I did like to cut their hair! *evil laughter* I had one of those Chrissy dolls whose hair you pulled out of the middle of her head. Well I kept cutting until the hair was swallowed up and could no longer be pulled out. Teehee! Oh, and I used to torture my brother's Gi-Joe with Kung-fu grip. I cut the plastic with a knife and then drew black lines with stitches all over his body. I made a trampoline out of a silly game called Bug-out and a pair of my mother's nylon stockings and I used to bounce my icky barbie dolls with punk rock hair cuts and my brother's poor scarred up Gi-Joes and watch them crash around the room.. not exactly sensitive and caring. And now look at me.

 

I had one doll in my childhood and I played with her all the time... I still own her. As an adult, I have had a multitude of dolls...BJDs being the newest additions.

 

Did you play with dolls as a child? Why or why not?

Yes, although I was simultaneously a huge tom boy. My absolute fave toys as a kid were Star Wars, I had a huge collection and played with them every day.

But I also played with stuffed animals, Cabbage Patch, Barbie, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake etc

If yes, did your childhood love of dolls get you into BJDs or was it something else?

I continued to collect toys through college and after. Beanie Babies were my biggest toy collection. But then there was a long expanse of time.. a decade or so.. where I didn't collect any toys or doll. Six months ago I discovered American Girl dolls and that got me back into the doll world (much to the dismay of my husband and confusion of my children).

If no, how did your lack of childhood dolliness effect your BJD hobby (did it make you feel self-conscious/etc)?

I will admit to being quite self-conscious but not because I wasn't into dolls as a child. My husband isn't thrilled about my growing doll collection (both from the clutter and the $$ standpoint) and absolutely NONE of my off-line friends collect *anything*, let alone toys. Even my kids think it's pretty bizarre.

 

I did play with dolls as a kid, probably more than any other type of toy. I suppose maybe that might have made me more comfortable with bjds, but that's not why I was attracted. I like the anime styled appearence. I don't play with them in quite the same way as I did my childhood dolls.

 

I played with dolls all the time. It was my favorite activity, besides playing with cats, whom I used to dress up in doll clothes occasionally.

 

I did have Barbies when I was younger although not around the age one should probably have them. I remember my nan finding an old Barbie of my mums, it had ginger hair and rigid bent arms and a strange straggly dress and that was my doll. Eventually I was bought a nice Barbie of my own but I wasn't too interested.

When I was a bit older though me and one of my friends were closet doll lovers. Some distant family member bought me a Jade Bratz doll because we share the same name and my friend also had the same name as one of the other Bratz dolls. Before long we had a chest full of our joint collection of Barbies and Bratz and loads of clothes and accessories and used to create collab stories with them. This was when still playing with dolls was completely unacceptable - as far as anyone else was concerned Barbies stopped at around 6. We finally gave them up when we were 13.

Looking back now, I can't quite remember why I got into BJDs. I know I thought they were breathtakingly beautiful and that the scope of customisability was astounding. I knew I felt some sort of connection and was desperate to own one, but it took six months to gather the courage to part with so much money for a doll, let alone battle with everyone else's disapproval ^^

 

I played with dolls all the time as a kid. My sister and I used to collect American Girl dolls, Kelly dolls, some Barbies, and we had a couple Bratz. We would play with them all the time together. I loved dressing them up, posing them, collecting things for them to play with, making scenes for them, and creating stories with them. Seeing as BJDs are much better for those things than most play dolls, it's easy to see where my love for them started. I honestly never stopped loving dolls. I got out of collecting them for a while, but I've never stopped loving the dolls I had, and now that I've discovered BJDs, my love for pretty much all my dolls has only been renewed.

 

When I was little I played with Barbies and Kelly dolls all the time. Up until I was 12 years old. I was bullied for years because I did. I would create stories with them. So when I was 13 I gave them all way despite not wanting to and there was always an emptiness there. So I am heavily into dolls now. Pretty much since I finished school and didn't have to worry about people judging me for liking/playing with dolls. I collect so many different types of dolls and BJDs are just one of them.

 

I was also a little tom boy growing up. Didnt want to wear dresses or go near barbie dolls. I think this changed a bit when i started finding friends that were into this type of stuff. Though it was with bratz dolls, i was never really into barbies. When i got "to young" to play with dolls (bratz) they were put away. I always loved to get them out look at them or even dress them and put them back again. Then Monster high dolls were introduced. I think i took a liking to them because they were the first "barbie" to be a ball jointed doll. I managed to collect all the originals, untill they kept making more and more new characters. I would always come back to looking at bjds. But at the time being out of my reach mh dolls were the best i could do. So i guess i have been into dolls almost all my life when looking at it. I've just slowly evloved into Bjd's

 

I played with barbies when I was little but while a lot pretended barbie had fantasy adventures or even go on dates mine were not that way. I had a fantasy world and barbie was more of a Xena warrior princess over all. I did have a Bell and Beast doll that I was super fond of and played the movie out but over all that was the girliest thing I did with my barbies.

Now baby dolls on the other hand I had one that belong to my mom when she was little and I love her so much. All though I don't know why we always went on spy adventures. There was another doll at my great aunts house me and my sister had to share to play with. When she past away ( my aunt was one of my most loved family members) I was afraid my sister would fight me for the doll but suprizing she did not and said I could have it. I have both dolls dressed and sitting on my shelf with other retired toys and I love them as much today as I did then.

 

Yes I did play with dolls when I was little. I loved dolls & stuffed animals. My mom was a doll collecter so I soon took up the hobby myself. I loved to do photography & it is not that easy to take photos of antique compo dolls so I went looking for other dolls & I came across these lovely dolls & saw that I could make them into anyone I wanted so not only could they be good modles for photos but they could actually have a story.

 

Yes, I've always played with dolls. I've had many types of dolls throughout the years from stuffed dolls, barbies, Monster High, etc....I've always looked for a certain aesthetic in some, a cuddle factor in others...Philippe is just another addition to my long history of doll-owning, but he is definitely unique and special in so many ways...I hope that my children and grandchildren will be able to love him as much as I do.

 

I have never played with dolls. My sister had tons of Barbie's but I only used them once in a while to dress them up. It was the only thing I liked about them and which I still like to do with my BJD's.
I once got a MyScene doll, but I did nothing with her since she had only one pair of clothes. For me, she was boring and she ended very fast in the toy closet.

My BJD's are nice to look at. Barbie's aren't.

 

When I was little I had a small doll phase. I had a ton of dolls for a few months or so then get tired of them and put them away. Later I would want them again and dig them up and so on... Being like this has had some effect on my hobby, It sort of happens the same way. Little short bursts of "inspiration", but in this case they last a little longer and i'm "un-interested" for a smaller amount of time. In that time I take a break for a week or so and then i'm back on track, every single day, dolls,dolls,dolls.

 

I did play with dolls as a child. I played with barbies, action figures, and american girl dolls. I feel all those combined is kind of like a BJD. Barbies I associated with being able to dress up, action figures posed well, and the american girl dolls were customizeable.

 

I actually never liked or wanted dolls when I was growing up. I had Barbies (which I tortured) and I had a couple porcelain type dolls which were given to me as gifts and scared me to no end. They were very quickly given away.

 

I hated baby dolls when i was 3-6 years old. Then i liked Barbies on 8-13. But Barbies was more horse riders than number one toys . My little ponies and Barbie horses was that big thing to me . I bought Pullip when i was 27 years and now 28 years old i have BJD`s . Maybe i found best dolls for me now.