Do you feel alone in the hobby? (even with the forum)

I feel you there... *hug*

I do tend to feel lonely, at least now I discovered DoA and I can at least read what other people say, share my opinion and look at the pictures other users post, but... Not having an irl friend (or even online, actually) to talk to about this and who actually shares the hobby and cares about what I have to say is pretty rough sometimes. I tend to get all excited about my new dolls and my family reacts by making me feel guilty for having dolls, my SO is scared/creeped out and some of my friends listen politely but that's it.
I'm sure there is a big community in my country/city, but I just can't seem to click with any of them (age difference, people not returning my messages, etc)

 

ᴧ LOL, times 100 that ᴧ .... I live in Estonia (neighbor to Finland) and there are maybe 20 people in this hobby in my whole country! Then again it is a good place to be if you are into making and casting your own dolls, as one of the owners of a European casting studio situated in Moscow happens to live in Estonia. She is very friendly and approachable, and always willing to give advice.

 

I live in Canada and have a lot of Pullips and am active in this Facebook group + have gone to a convention in Chicago, but doll collectors around here are scarce. My boyfriend (thankfully) has gotten into dolls because of me and has supported me multiple times. Most people I bring it up to think it's super cool, but I usually have no one to really talk to about it. I attended Doll North this year and some people weren't very nice so I was like :/​

 

Yeah tbh I always feel lonely. I can't seem to meet people my age in real life

 

Yes, but I don't feel too lonely about it. Some parts of the community I don't want to get involved with. Also, I tend to not like the same type of interests that a lot of BJD owners like so I'm on my own.

 

I feel pretty lonely in the hobby. I was really into collecting Pullips a few years back and had loads of friends online who I talked to everyday and we would all roleplay and talk about dolls and life and whatever. As I joined the BJD hobby, we all started going different directions and I ended up on my own. I've tried making some BJD friends, but they always stop talking to me after like a week. Thankfully I have a few friends IRL who ask about my dolls and how they're doing and whatnot. If not I honestly would have given up on photography and everything by now.

 

honestly i'm really lucky. All my friends were into monster high and ever after high long before i got into BJD after which if only took a few months before everyone else joined ship ^-^
even so it can still be a little lonely since i'm the only one whos hard core into the hobby whilst all my friends enjoy the hobby arent to the same level that i am. which is normal for me since i get pretty passionate about the things i like but its still a little lonely sometimes.
then there's my mom^-^ she collects baby dolls so she was behind my BJD hobby from the start she even got an old wooden Ball joint baby doll that she wants me to restring for her ^^ and although shes not colecting the dolls herself she enjoys the ones i have she even bought me sculpting tools and a toaster oven for making them things out of sculpty
and my Dad also likes my dolls ^^ i show off all of the outfits and things to him and tell him all of their backstories and he loves them ^^
So sometimes its lonely like i'm in my own little bubble even with the poeple around me but most of the time i just feel blessed to have poeple in my life who care about the things i care about.

 

Luckily, my friends are all really supportive of this hobby and one of my friends actually owns a few BJDs. I'm really lucky to have them.

 

In my area the only club for dolls/anime is specifically greased to the teens. Over 18 not allowed. I looked. So I YouTube alot.

 

I do feel alone in the hobby, even (especially?) with the forum. I feel like not a whole lot of people really like the same sorts of things that I do, even within the hobby. But I mean, it's not like I got into the hobby for the social aspect anyway. I do appreciate this forum as a platform, but I'm also happy enough with my 0 follower tumblr and disparaging facebook comments. I've long ago learned that there is a certain happiness to being a solitary person and doing things solely for your own personal enjoyment.

I don't know though, one day I might put some clothes on my doll and learn what ISO settings are, but that sounds like an awful lot of work.

 

Some times I feel alone because not every one I know can understand me.

 

I'm housebound, and the only two people I see on any regular basis are absolutely terrified of dolls, so I'm pretty much on my own when it comes to the hobby. I don't mind too much though, at least I can talk to people about them like this.

 

I do feel like that, not terribly badly, but its hard to be the only one in my group of close online friends who have a real interest in dolls. And I don't even just mean BJDs, i mean any types, from Monster High to BJDs. None of them hate dolls, or have distaste for my hobbies, but I just feel like they don't have any particular interest in talking about them, even when i bring it up.

Though It's hard to share my BJD interests with all of them anyway, because I know one my friends has a bad fear of dolls that look too realistic, so many human looking bjds fall under there i think. I am not sure how far that goes, so i tend to not share them, which is a bit of a bummer too.

I do wish I had more people to talk to about dolls though, this forum is great, but I prefer instant messaging based chatting for personal conversations in general.

 

I understand what your saying, I'm in the same situation, my dolls are my friends u can say, because my RL friends used me and I had a mental breakdown and now I have trust issues and a number of phobias. I cannot even leave my home for a day, I just want to be in my own little bubble. My bjd's don't lie to me or take me for granted, just listen to me, not saying anything, I like that.

 

There have been lots of times I feel alone, but not necessarily in this hobby. My husband is in the military, and I was in the army when we met, and its been 10 years now since I have lived anywhere even near my family. I only get to visit home about 1-2 times a year, so its hard to beauty from the people I love. Its also hard making new friends, and its even harder making friends who have similar interests. We don't drink, so all of my friends usually want to go out to bars, we have 3 dogs and we don't like to crate them often so we never leave home for more than 3-4 hours, so dinner plus a movie is out of the question. So basically its been me and my husband as my only true friend for the past 6 years we've been married. It is hard constantly moving and leaving any friends I did have behind, but even still those friends I make at each new duty station aren't life long friends really, so it does get lonely. I think this hobby has actually made things feel LESS lonely for me though, because it introduced me to a plethora of great people, even if its just here on the internet, and it gives me a reason to look for new meetups or conventions in every new place we move to. Its like an ice breaker basically to make friends who have similar interests as you. So I would say I have felt less lonely since beginning this hobby, if that makes any sense.

 

Absolutely! Most of my friends in real world can't understand the hobby. With nobody to talk with about dolls, I start losing interest in dolls.TAT

 

i also feel the same no one around me in my town really know of BJD and i started a new relationship and he doesnt know bout them so im a little nervous to get her out and start my hobby again, i just feel alone and my sister who was participating in the hobby moved to montana and i live in arizona so thats some distance

 

I used to know some people, but they seemed to be more into the dolls in very different ways. They never really where willing to talk about dolls unless it was about their dolls, so I never really felt I could talk to them about mine. My mom liked them, but was never too interested beyond kitting clothing for them, and I'm not the best at staying active online, so I never built up a friend base online here. All that being said, I've always been a bit of a hermit. I prefer spending my time sewing and drawing and if some one is around great, but if not I'm happy that way too.

However I do actually have some one to talk about dolls with now. I'm restarting my doll collection, and when I showed my mom the smaller dolls (YoSDs) I would be getting she suddenly got sucked into the hobby! Now shes as interested as I am, and can't wait for my dolls as well as her own! xD

I'm always happy to be able to talk to someone about something I love, but I'm not lonely if I can't. I do find though, rather then getting lonely, I lose some motivation. So it is great to have someone else interested!

 

I'm honestly a little glad that I found this thread because I didn't think anyone else felt like this...
I'm still pretty new to the hobby, I found out about it through Instagram, some dolls popped up on my explore page and I ended up falling in love with them. But no one IRL talks or even knows about them, except one friend.

I don't have any online friends and I find it difficult talking to others within this hobby because so many of them seem to have little groups and I don't want to intrude on that (it would be too awkward) so I keep to myself which gets depressing I guess. I have one friend who knows about them and doesn't mind them, but whenever I talk about BJDs, she seems disinterested, as though she would prefer to talk about something else so I don't bring them up much anymore.

I guess it's just a hobby that I'll keep to myself and maybe one day make some friends who share a mutual love for it ^^

 

Heh, my friends are probably quite sick of doll talk by now. That said, they indulge my gushing about it and they are appreciative of the work and the skill that goes into the dollmaking craft.

Though I wish I had a bjd friend who was really really as into dolls as I am, I'm already grateful that Ive gotten my friends at least a little intrigued by my niche interest.