Do your irl friends/family know your doll story?

Nope. I have so many stories and OC's that I tend to avoid blabbering about them. I can shortly state they are from this-and-that era and what they do, but I don't think they care to heart about histories, which have always been massive in my stories.

 

I think it’s odd not to share a little with those you’re close to. They might not be into it, but they can have a short chat because they care about you and want to know what you’re doing & share in it a bit. My family may be interested in things I’m not, and I wouldn’t spend hours on it but I’d listen a bit every now & then, or look at something new etc. Sharing things you care about is part of life. I’d be a bit sad if I was really into something & people who allegedly care about me responded with ‘I don’t care!’. Similarly, if someone that matters to me really loves something, I’d at least listen a bit and not just dismiss it.

You don’t need to go into massive detail, but it’s nice to share!

 

Well, my mum and a few of my friends follow my bjd instagram, so they know about as much as anyone else which... isn't much xD

I don't really share their stories with anyone. I do mention stuff sometimes but not like... in depth. Their world is a kind of sanctuary that I go to in my head when I need to get away from reality. I think sharing too much of it might ruin that for me. I would start worrying too much about what they're going to think of it. Although it is fairly obvious from the way I talk about my dolls that they're more than just dolls to me, and I'm okay with them knowing that.

 

I don't often share my dolls' stories...I tend to assume that people are not interested and I have always been completely terrible at summaries of my own plots.

If someone asks I will tell them as much as they would like to know though! I just don't tend to go in to backstories otherwise. Sometimes I do get excited and just spout doll concept ideas, especially while I am waiting for a doll or working on it. Hehe.

 

That seems a bit superficial to me - I know my family and friends care, I don't need them to pretend interest in everything I'm interested in to prove it.

Yes, but why bore them when you know it doen't interest them...?

You don't have to share every interest to care. You can care about someone and know they care about you without over-sharing all your interests.

All my friends and family know I have the dolls (the house is full of them, they can't really be missed or overlooked, but they'd know about them even if that weren't the case), but only the ones that are interested in them know details because, frankly, I have other things to talk about and share with the ones who aren't interested in the minutia of my dolls characters and backstories, and better things to do with my time than bore the ones who aren't interested.

None of them, for example, would dream of talking politics or cars at me, and I pay them the same respect by not talking dolls at them.

Teddy

 

Aha, no. In fact, I typically try to refrain from telling anyone anything about my characters if I can help it, even in communities where that's normal and even somewhat expected like this one. My roomie has trouble getting things out of me even though many of our characters are in a shared universe, and she has to be the one to initiate any conversation regarding them. Terrified that I'm being a nuisance and so on, you know? It's easier to just keep things to myself, even if I'm literally holding or playing with the doll in public haha.

 

I guess people have different ways of relating to one another. I’m glad my family take an interest in things I care about but I understand that others see it differently and perhaps don’t need to do that. It’s not superficial in my case: My family just like to know what I’m up to. We’re very close & talk a lot about all manner of things. I don’t think a couple of minutes bores them (I don’t go on for ages when talking with my dad or bro, but I’ll go “Look at this” and they’ll take a minute to see it. With my mum I might talk a bit more about it.”)

I think it’s the sentiment behind it & whether it’s meant well or not. As long as everyone is happy & no one feels rejected. You seem to have a good understanding with your family & have a different dynamic. I’m not saying your way is wrong & mine right. I perhaps need more validation in life and am somewhat needy in my desire for attention - I try to be nice about it & not bore people too much. I guess I sometimes have difficulties seeing others POVs (autism), but thanks for explaining it! I might have misunderstood your original post, so sorry bout that!

 

Good grief! There's no need to appologiise to me about it - one of the great things about life is that people are all different and see things differently, and you're as entitled to your opinion about the matter as I am to mine, allbeit that they are so different.

It think we approached the question from different starting points too.

The original question was do they know your dollstory, rather than do they know you have dolls or that they have a story.

All my family and friends know I have the dolls (one friend even refuses to visit because she finds them so creepy) but the only ones that know the details of their stories/backstories are the ones who are interested in them. The backstory wouldn't mean anything to the rest of them so, to me, there's no point in talking about it, since they'd only be nodding out of politelness and liekly wouldn't rememebr any of it by the next time I spoke about it.

From what you've written, I get the impression you were approaching the question from the starting point of your friends/family just knowing that you have the dolls at all, rather than talking to them about the whole backstory of each doll.

So, very different approaches to answering the question.

Teddy

 

I honestly just talked a bit about my hobby with my best friend. I'm a student and some of my patners see really weird the fact that I'm a guy and I like bjds, so I keep it in secret. I'm also a bit shy about talking to this hobby with my other friends. :I

 

My IRL friends helped me develop the story and characters! I don't hide the dolls or the story from my family, but I don't discuss it with those who seem disinterested (like my dad). My mom collects porcelain dolls so we kind of share a love of dolls in the first place, and I've told her and my sister about the dolls and where they fit in my story when I bring them with me on vacation. However, even then, I'm much more likely to have longer conversations about it with friends and at doll meetups.

I guess if you take into account that I've written a book and tossed it up on Amazon, I'm really not afraid to share the story with anyone, but then I don't suppose those who read the book know I have a bunch of dolls of the characters, haha.

 

I find that most of my friends and family either don’t know what to say about my hobby, or they patronize me really badly (in a well-meaning way). I don’t care if people think I’m weird, (because I am), but I do sort of care if my friends and family think I’m mentally and emotionally underdeveloped. So no... I downplay it.

 

I don't share the idea behind my dolls with them. These dolls don't interest them as much, so telling my family about them would only bore them. We have plenty of other topics to talk about, the dolls are just for me.

 

Sadly no... I tryed many times to explain my doll´s story to them but they can't even remember the names of my dolls.
My parents, sometimes, can't even recognize my dolls when I change their outfits and they start with interrogating me like: Is this a new doll?
Oh, come on! I have only six dolls! (I had more in the past) Can't be that difficult to remember them...
But for me, the important thing is that they accept my hobby

 

No, my IRL friends and especially family don't care at all. They don't even look at the pictures or art or read the comics I have made of them. A few of them know the names of my favorites (mostly just Alex and John) and a little about them, but that's it. I'm pretty sure that none of them want to hear all about their life stories or anything, so I don't talk about it.

 

literally no one knows, not even my boyfriend whhos always asking to hear about it, i feel like im just really awkward about explaining stories to people who dont rp cus im worried they'll find it cringy or something

 

No. It's not that they would make fun of me or anything, it's just that they wouldn't care and would at best pretend to listen while tuning me out. It's the same when I talk about videogames or other hobbies.

 

All of my human dolls are from a certain tabletop game that I run - their characters function as NPCs for my players to interact with, make enemies of, or receive help from. Thus, my group of friends who play with me know my doll’s story better than anyone else. I’ve even used one of my dolls as a prop in a session before - an enemy had made a poppet of one of my NPC characters, and the players had to save him.

 

My Mom does, as I'm extremely open with her, although I'm a little more private about my doll hobby around other people.

 

I'm pretty OK at reading people ... If it seems like someone wouldn't be terribly interested but they ask I just refer to them as "art dolls" and don't really expand on anything, but if someone is interested or seems like they would be, I do tell them a bit. Not a secret, but not a center point either...

 

I don't hide them but I also don't just talk about them. Only close friends and family, generally if they ask too.