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

Yes, most of my attempts at making doll friends in my area has been disastrous. Most are 20+ years my elder and tend to age discriminate (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not) so I haven't been able to make any lasting connection offline. Online folks are much friendlier...so I've got that going for me. Still id like to make at least one doll minded friend to hang out with.

 

I guess...sometimes... I have many friends but...friend with the same hobby as mine...? No, I don't have one. So the loneliness must come from this factor. My friends accept my hobby and they know that I really like BJD. But to talk about them together is difficult since they don't have much idea about dolls. And most of my friends prefer to spend their time to go to party after lecture/practice but I go straight back home and begin to sew outfit for dolls. Yeah...Sometimes I go with them to party too but...I actually choose which kind. If it's just go to watch opera/ballet together, then I will definitely accept. If it's long night party, I choose to stay home and play with my dolls better.

 

I'm a confirmed Solo these days.

There are plenty of other doll owners in my area (I'm just north of Seattle-), and I did participate in the local community in the past, but the owners I knew and became friends with "back in the day" have almost all drifted away from it now. There are still local meets, but they're organized and attended by a newer, younger group of collectors that I simply found I have very little in common with... I wasn't comfortable with them, they weren't comfortable with me, and when all was said and done we had absolutely nothing to talk about... So, I haven't been to a Seattle meet in years, and have no interest in attending any in the future.

Forum posting is enough social interaction for me. I'll keep my dolls to myself in meat-space, post a picture here once in a blue moon, and call that "social enough".

 

I do actually as there doesn't seem to be any conventions meet ups or anything to even try to make friends in the hobby!

Luckily I have made some very very lovely friends on facebook But they are the other side of the world lol

 

I don't know anybody interested in this hobby in real life

 

yes i feel lonely sometimes cause i got no friend next door to have fun with our dolls. i wish there was somebody close to me - for that we could meet and sew and talk face to face and not only on skype or doa and so on

 

Sort of. None of my friends have any hobbies in common with me so it isn't really a big deal for me, I'm pretty used to 'going it alone', but some of them do take an interest and are pretty happy to tag along with me.
One of these days I'll pluck up the courage to go to a meet near me and hopefully make some new friends who know what I'm talking about without explaining ^_^

 

Sometimes i can, but my best friend is as involved with BJD's as i am, so we're constantly talking about them and taking photos and even taking our dolls to the restaurants in town. I also go to Anime St. Louis, which has a very nice doll meet for a couple hours one of the days (plus i can make one of my off-topic dolls a cosplay and walk around with her)

 

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. My wonderful fiance has taken an interest in this hobby and has helped me pick out wigs/eyes/clothes and even molds themselves. We're active RPers so making a doll replica of a character is very fun for him! He's the person I talk to about my doll stuff. Our friends are absolutely not into the hobby. As for the forum, I think it's an overall friendly place but I'm a fairly quiet person. Maybe when I get a better camera I'll be more active?
I'm thinking about visiting Mint on Card to see other BJD in person since going to a doll meet sounds scary.

 

I often feel alone on the forums I have dyslexia and often feel like I misspell things and so I just look around a lot. I have been to meets and just didn't feel like they liked me or that I fit in.

 

Not really. While I do enjoy the social aspect of this hobby, I can enjoy the other aspects of it just fine without it. I enjoy owning my dolls, blushing them, sewing for them, photographing them, writing about them, and probably a few other activities I'm forgetting. I can enjoy all those aspects of the hobby alone, without feeling lonely. I'm also not a huge fan of meets in theory, just because I think my personality would clash a bit with the atmosphere (I'm very quiet and like things to be calm, whereas social events in general tend to be exciting and noisy), so I don't really feel as though I'm missing out by not attending them.

 

You know, reading some if the posts here just make me want to give you all a hug and say everything's ok, you're ok! Your love of bjds makes you cool and interesting. We appreciate beauty where we find it - in an expression as in the tip of a head or a wave of a hand, we can imagine compassion or hurt and feel empathy. Something that may be hard to express in real life.

I went to an exhibition at a museum here in NYC that featured modern Japanese clothing designs. It was fantastic! The exhibit included some bjds in fabulous clothing. As I read through the visitor comment book, I read over and over again how much people liked the dolls the most. It gets lonely in so many places in our lives. If our dolls ease some if it for us then that's a good thing and not spooky or weird at all. If people can outwardly display their hot rods and vintage rides at public meet ups and no one thinks them strange, then we who enjoy our pastimes from our childhood in the form of dolls in the quiet space of our home shouldn't feel like we're weird. After all, those guys sitting around their cool restored cars where probably once little boys pushing matchbox cars through the sand.

 

I don't really, I have found that here in Chile, are a lot of people who have BJD so, I don't feel lonely ^-^. Also my family and nearest friends, support me and thats all that matters

 

I went to a meet for the first time and was pleased to see that everyone was different in age and background, but all welcoming and friendly.
I have felt quite alone in many of my other interests in the past.
Unless one has a good friend who is interested in the same thing to the same degree, it is easy to feel like others are thinking that "interest" is bordering on "obsession".

 

Yeh, I don't really have any friends in the hobby anymore. My one friend that I am still friends with doesn't have dolls anymore. I don't know anyone that lives near me in the hobby and I don't really have friends online. It's kind of a bummer.

 

No - I'm part of an active group (closest is about 30 miles away) but I'm rather social so I drag my dolls about w/me to all sorts of geeky events (so they can cosplay LOL) & show them off to my friends. I go to dolly meets and conventions as well.

 

Yeah. Even though I have a friend who has a doll and she's close, I do feel alone. But that's ok.

 

I'm lucky that there are a few doll collectors that live in the same area as me, and i go to a meet every few months. But generally i keep myself to myself. I have one quite close online dolly friend who i've not met yet, and lots of people in the scene that i've known for years but never really spoken to much one-to-one. I took the plunge and went to a convention in Amsterdam this year (from the UK), where i met lots of dolly friends for the first time Sometimes it's worth travelling a bit to meet people.

 

I don't really know many people with dolls, I feel pretty lonely in the hobby but i may be able to go to meet ups soon (finally working mornings so i have time for a social life) so perhaps that will change

I think tumblr has been the best, but I wouldn't say I've made friends on tumblr just yet.

 

Yes, most people I know have never even seen ABJD.