Do you hide your hobby from certain people?

My family was fine at first until they found out how much these dolls cost and they flipped on me. I don't care though because it is something that I love.

 

I've made small comments at first just to friends to probe how they feel, like "I started a new hobby. It's very artisitic." And actually talking about dolls to other people who I know are artists. They understand at that level. I don't think I would ever admit I got my first doll to cope with loneliness, but I'll say it here with you guys haha. I do avoid talking about dolls around friends who have a phobia, just out of courtesy.

My family on the otherhand, I would never tell. Even when I was drawing, I'd get comments like "eyes are too big", "that's weird", "what's that pokemon shit?" (even tho I wasn't drawing pokemon lol), and it really discouraged me from showing off anything I was proud of. I've only told my twin since she's open-minded and has the same interests.

@honeyandclover5 what's your icon by the way? I love it!

 

Well... we had a doll meeting at my place yesterday and got talking about taking our dolls out. As it turned out, almost every one of us was fairly reluctant to be seen with our dolls in public. It's not the same thing as keeping them a secret, I guess - most of us have our dolls on display in our rooms and our friends and family know about them. But whereas we are happy to take our dolls out to public places where people don't know us (a café in another town, for example), we are very hesitant about doing the same thing in our hometown, where we may run into people we know or places that we frequent "doll-less". It's ... well, we love our dolls, but we don't like the funny looks or judgement we might get from other people :p.

 

I never try to hide my dolls, just a few weeks ago I invited students (high school) to do some revising for the final exams (I'm a teacher) and the dolls (and my model horses, some 300 of them) are in our living room. I usually do warn them about the hobbies but this time I hadn't done that, they were surprised. The students asked some questions related to both hobbies which was kind of nice.

 

Maybe some people...but not most. X'3
I dont plan to hide a lot from others...it depends on the person.
Especially if its people who expect/want me to be more my age/sex/etc.

 

It depends. I'm not spontaneously telling about my dolls, but if someone asks what my hobbies are, I'll list them amongst my other interests. ;-)

 

I only tell someone if they ask about my dolls.

 

I don't tell people, i don't think anyone outside of my family knows ^^' but if someone asked me about it, i'd be honest. I just don't talk about myself or my hobbies that much- i just don't feel like it's necessary knowledge for someone to have about me

 

I keep my dolls "hidden". I am not secretive or ashamed of them or anything like that, but I don't display them. I used to have them at my desk at work (animation studio already full of puppets), but now they are at home in my closet in their boxes. A coworker told me that when she came in to our work place on the weekends, her kids would go nuts begging to play with them. I realized they had a high potential of getting messed with when I was not around.

I have always had unusual hobbies and several of them. Most of the time people are disinterested and think they are a little odd.

I think this site is a great place to share my dolls and talk about them. I enjoy sharing with fellow collectors. This community is a great place to interact with like minded people.

My living room seems like a poor place for doll discussions with like minded people.....

 

Thats true...x3

 

My dolls placed on most prominent place of my new house so no, I don't hide them. Conversely, I very proud to have them, and my family, friends, guests and random people are extremely supportive.
Of course sometimes someone unacquainted can tell me how creepy my dolls are, but who cares

 

I live with my family and my room is soooooo small that I have no place to hide
But I hid the price tag of all my dolls and their clothes from my parents. They would kill me if they knew, even though I am just using my own money (sigh)

 

I'm pretty open about my hobby. I used to be very open about it, sometimes even carrying a doll with me to go shopping or whatever, when I was an older teen. Now I only take them out if I have a reason to, like taking pictures or showing other doll collecting friends. I used to bring them to college sometimes to use as models (I was in an arts program). Even now, it comes up in conversation sometimes, and I don't shy away from pulling up pictures on my phone. I used to work at a fabric store, so when I'd buy small quantities of something, my coworkers would always want to know what I was making

Overall, I've had far more curious/positive experience with it than negative.

 

I find that there is a stigma around adults that collect/play with dolls and I would be lying if I said it didn't affect the way I act about them. Nobody in my circle of friends/family really understands and think that it's weird or creepy. They feel a little more comfortable when I explain that I'm using them for writing/photography projects but they'd flip if they knew the cost. I wish I didn't, but I guess I do hide my dolls from people. It's just that old fear of being the friendless weirdo, I suppose

 

I definitely don't hang out with people who are rude about any of my hobbies or interests. And as hobbies go, this one's pretty benign--I have a bunch of friends who practice or collect or obsess over considerably more esoteric things. That said, I probably wouldn't be bringing them into public spaces unless I was doing a photoset or something.

 

I used to be scared and hide my hobbies from my siblings except my mom and some friends. I guess I get scared when people insult my hobby. Now that I am working and old enough, I am not afraid to show my hobby, It is my own thing and money anyway.

 

I hide my hobby from friends and family.

 

No. But I've got a lot of nerdy hobbies and I'm used to certain people not caring and/or making fun of me for it. For example, gaming and watching anime aren't really stigmatized nowadays, but they sure were when I was growing up.

 

I'm pretty open about it, I think. I'm 22 and surrounded by open-minded people, so saying that I want to have a doll collection doesn't seem to bother them. Of course, I only speak about it if it's brought up in the conversation beforehand.

 

Well I wouldn't really call it hiding, but I don't think I'll tell my mom about it. Or the cost at least. Not that she would be against this hobby, but I can already hear her going: ".........it's your money." She doesn't even understand my love for video games, so I doubt she'd be more understanding towards dolls that cost hundreds of dollars/euros. It's really not a big deal, but I prefer not telling.

The other person I won't be telling is a friend of mine, who I know for certain does not understand the BJD hobby at all. Again, I don't mind if she knows, but I won't be running to tell her either.

I think the reason why I don't really want to tell about my BJD hobby to certain people is because I want to keep the hobby as a positive thing. I don't want negativity to hover around my dolls, I want to enjoy them and enjoy seeing them without feeling silent judgment on my back.