Do you feel that ABJD's compensate for something you don't have IRL?

Nice! Thanks for sharing, your edit made me smile.

 

Not entirely related but your topic made me think of it: I've heard of people making therapy dolls to improve their self-image. Basically they make a doll to portray themself and externalizing their self image helps them love themselves a bit more. For me - one of my dolls is an avatar of my 'inner critic' and whenever I have issues with criticizing myself at inappropriate moments I can physically tell my critic: "Not now, go take a break" and then physically put him in another room.

 

A little bit, yeah. Each of my dolls has a quality or flaw I've found in myself...but they also have something I wish I had: a certain job, good fashion sense, etc.

 

Yes, I'd have to say I do to an extent. A variety of limiting factors in my real life make it a satisfying experience to have a little resin group to direct around and give myself a much-needed creative, mental, and emotional outlet, and to explore inter-personal dynamics and conflict management and resolution. ^^;

 

I'll admit it... Kestrel (EID Bibiane) and Gaia (Elf Lishe) do end up wearing things that I only wish I could wear and look even half as good in.

 

My dolls are more dark, gothic looking and I am nowhere near that. I love the style and I wish I could pull it off, but I can't so I just dress my dolls that way c:

 

Well, when I was younger, slimmer, and prettier, I wore the gorgeous medieval garb I make pretty much every week end to SCA events...but that got a little old after 25 years of doing it. I have thought about joining the Jane Austen society so I would have an excuse to make and wear Regency gowns, which are my favorite historical clothing style, but hey Iplehouse dolls look so much better in clothing than I do, so I make them exquisite silk gowns that show off their ideal beauty to perfection. I have a boring job in corporate America, and they are pirates, steampunk adventurers, and God-kings of ancient mystical lands.

Heck, yeah, I live vicariously!

 

Hmm.. I don't think I'd ever want to BE my doll Arania. Being a cursed spidergirl ain't easy, after all! I don't really dress her in a way that I would like to necessarily dress either; I like wearing weird colorful stuff, which is the opposite of what I have in mind for her future outfits.

I think personality is the only way I sort of engage personally with her. Though I give her qualities that are quite different from my own, they are qualities that are the yin to my yang. For instance, I WISH I could be super disciplined, I WISH I could be a more focused and competitive person. However, I put these qualities in Arania and imagine both the great and terrible that come out of it. I see it as a way to both motivate myself and also remind myself that how I am is not bad. For instance, Arania's imaginary dedication to her craft inspires and motivates me to push the envelope in my own life; on the flipside, the enemies she willingly creates and the lack of empathy she suffers from reminds me that I have good qualities that stem from my relatively gentle nature x'D. It's a bit cathartic, where you get to vent your frustrations and simultaneously praise those perks about yourself through an imaginary character that you get to play with in Doll-form!

 

^ I love that.

Hmm... I do have costumes and things I can wear but I find them very uncomfortable and wear them only to please friends. Even when I was a super thin teen, you couldn't get me into anything other than clothes I could skip around in. But my dolls don't mind wearing heavy layers clothing, dresses, armor, heels and so on. So I guess I do in a way.

However, I would love to be a centaur. So I don't know if I live through my dolls that way or just envy them.

 

Oh sure i used to wear lolita and frilly clothes. I do have some left in my closet but i wear them less now. But yeah i would love to wear the same as my dolls and i usually do. I look for stuff id probably wear myself. Nice dresses but yeah I bought none just yet as I just started and I only got the character outfit of louise (school uniform and camisole) but yeah i also cosplay as louise so you can see that coming alive as well

 

I do, but in a different way. I do dress my girl dolls in cute outfits, wigs and makeup, but I also try to do that for myself too. Or at least in flattering dresses, style my hair, attempt makeup. XD

However, I can't be a teenage boy, and that's what most of mine are. They're teen idols and heart throbs, and since I don't meet any of the requirements to be in a boyband or solo pop star, my dolls are. They also get to travel, which I don't often get to do. At the same time, most also have traits I would never want in my life--like lots of siblings, children, being divorced, high stress jobs, traumatic pasts or illness.

 

My take on this is a little bit different...in a way, my dolls live through me. I always say, "By telling the stories of my dolls, I tell the story of myself" and it's true. Each one encompasses a part of me, or a time in my life...some positive remembrance that's found a home in doll form rather than being documented on the pages of a journal. Oh yeah...certainly they may dress better than I did, have better figures than I did, have the perfect fantasy-inspired face and hair I never had, be an elf or a centaur, etc. (and why not, since they're documenting a fond memory more than mortal flesh and bone.) But at the very heart of it, they're me...my life...my experiences...distilled into doll form as a pure fantasy with a gilded sentiment of truth woven through it.

 

Well, my situation is similar, but it's because of my religion, not my weight. But, I suppose? I don't know yet, haha. I don't have my doll yet.

 

Some of my dolls are a representation of part of myself. Like part of my personality And my favorite character in my main story is going through many of the same things I am, only they can express them without drawing unnecessary attention etc. I also find myself drawn to many different types of clothing I've always wanted to wear, but because I'm lazy and hate to shop for (human) clothes, I've never gotten a chance to wear them. Same goes for wigs, shoes, and eyes hahaha :

 

I don't feel like I live through my dolls. I may sort of live through characters I create, though I don't imagine myself as being them when I'm writing them, nor when I'm creating/dressing their dolls. Of course when I write fiction, I write situations that are appealing to me. I guess I'm a little disconnected in that way?

 

I like the idea of dolls representing parts of my personality... I have dark/goth dolls, sad dolls, mysterious dolls, sexy/foxy dolls, happy dolls... and so on and so on, and most likely the doll I play with is the one that matches my mood of the day.

 

I don't know really.
But this topic had me thinking about it a lot.

Maybe my boy is an extend of my dark inner self (that sounds stupid reading it out loud).
Anyway if I were a boy, i'd definitely dress like him .

And I plan on buying a cute girl. And dress her in all the cute clothes I wouldn't dare to wear in real life.
And that is not because of my weight, it's more because of my length.
I'm 175 that is like 5 feet tall. And I feel stupid wearing cute clothes.

 

I suppose that they do, though I've never really thought about it until now!
probably because they're something constant and reliable- I know that they'll be there and I know what I can or can't do for them. They're grounding and thats relaxing to me when irl my life seems to be all but, sometimes.

I also do seem to pair them all up with each other- maybe thats something hahah!

 

Not at all. I have been a doll lover my whole life. And it was a natural transition to move to owning bjds. To me they are an addition to my life, and not here to fill a hole for something I feel I missing.

 

Wow, that's deep! I think for me it is partly a way to feel like I did when I was a child and partly because I love stories and creativity, creating a character and being able to interact with that character (does that sound weird?) Is so satisfying.... But definitely the childhood thing, opening a long awaited box and finding a beautiful doll nestled in there just takes me emotionally back to all those Christmas's and those Barbie's..... :-D

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