Do your irl friends/family know your doll story?

Honestly? The people I live with couldn't possibly care less about my doll's stories. None of them are doll people and one of them has an actual phobia about dolls. She won't even touch Chaeri and she keeps accusing her of "staring at me". I have to try to keep her face turned away when she's in the room, but sometimes I forget...and, to be honest, sometimes I know I turned the head but Riri ends up looking in her direction anyway. She does that sometimes. After ten years, I'm used to it...but it makes my roomie HATE Chaeri, which is kind of ouchy to me.

 

Only my parents and my boyfriend know about this passion... I think it's something very personal, so I just share it with my family ^_^

 

My gf and I are both into dolls (thanks be), but my extended family doesn't know anything about it. My grandmother thinks I like Barbies (I did when I was a kid), and it's sweet so I haven't deterred her. She picks out quite pretty ones.

If I lived closer to her, I'd probably bring one of my resin folk over to meet her. Alas, she's in Cincinnati and I'm in Colorado.

My parents flat out wouldn't get it, but that's par for the course with them.

^Sounds a touch more bitter than I actually intended.

 

Most of them!

 

My doll friend and I have written out a good portion of our doll's stories, and swap them constantly (I've even made sims of them) but the only one outside of us to have read the stories is her younger sister. She says she's very proud to be a fandom of one.

 

My friend and I have several stories written about all of our dolls together. Before she started collecting, I wrote alone and didn't talk about the characters very much outside of the basics. After she joined in, talking about them became much more fun. As for my family, my mother, father, and middle sister don't know very much, but the youngest voluntarily read everything I wrote alone and everything me and my friend wrote. She calls herself the 'fandom of one' for our dolls.

 

Not really, they know I have them and definitely think it's a bit odd but have accepted that my taste is different to theirs.
Some friends think the dolls are part of my writing process, which is partially true they can embody a character or just provide inspiration and calm.

 

Most of them just don't know about my doll. And they never will.

 

A few of them do. Some people I do share the story with are fellow writers, and we mostly discuss writing mechanics, character development etc. but some of these writer friends are also interested in the fact that some of these characters are shelled in a doll form. I don’t really share the stories so much yet with fellow doll people honestly because I’m writing from the POV of an author/narrator and not as doll owner or writing fanfic or in a fanfic universe so it’s more about the characters than the dolls who embody them for me and I think that just gets boring to some doll owners, haha. If it’s about dolls, fellow doll owners remain interested and if it was fanfic or set in an established universe, fellow fans would maybe have interest.

I’ve actually had doll people say ‘well you could tell those stories by themselves without the dolls’ When I’ve told the elevator pitch of my story arcs even though the stories I am telling do involve doll (and human) photo shoots as well as narration and artwork of the characters and dolls. Lots of people like to tell doll stories but not that many of us are so interested in the mechanics of the writing parts and formats, maybe?

 

Quite a few of my gang are resin avatars for various roleplayed MMO toons or tabletop RPG characters, so, obviously the friends who were also involved with those games know the backstories of those dolls.

Otherwise? Nope.

I'm more likely to talk about the sculpt or the company or the outfit they're wearing when I'm discussing a doll with someone else, rather that person is a part of the hobby or not.

 

I think only my husband and my sister know about the stories I have for my dolls but they don't care enough to remember details or anything like that but they have a big picture of how they are related to one another.

 

I absolutely don't mention my dolls' stories, as I never expect anyone to be interested. Only close fellow doll friends actually know what's going on in their characters' lives. Generally, my non-hobby friends and family are aware that I have names for these dolls, though might be much less so that they originally have sculpt names to begin with.

And not that I think I'm special or even particularly creative, but I do also keep story details close to the vest. The characters are just so personal to me, I'm not inclined to share so openly.

 

It's a bit embarrassing, but I hide my dolls when my friends come around, so only my parents know about my hobby. I feel like my friends would be SHOCKED at how much money I've spent on doll stuff... so I try to avoid the conversation ;; Maybe one of these days I'll work up the courage!

 

I am estranged from my family so they only have a slight idea of my doll hobbie (and they don't know I have a store), with the exception of my aunt (mother's sister) and my grandma who I talk to often and one day we met I brought them my minimee doll (a DC Xanthe Human with faceup by me) and they said it was very pretty. My grandma also likes dolls so she specially liked it! (I plan on customizing a super cute baby doll I found and gifting it to her). I didn't tell them about other dolls stories cause I didn't think they would be interested.

For friends and acquaintances, I am very open about it! My dolls usually don't have complex stories so I usually say their names and the general character description (if I have one). With the exception of the friends that share the hobbie, with them sometimes I tell them the stories and characters I imagine or they tell me theirs.

 

No one really knows about my doll hobby...it’s hard for me to bring it up even tbh! I tried bringing it up with a few of my coworkers which was a bad idea in retrospect (but I was so excited over purchasing my first doll lolol), and while one of them thought they were cute another one was very judge-y and made fun of me in front of my other coworkers My mom knows but doesn’t really approve. She thinks it’s a waste of money. My sister knows and she is kind of supportive? But she’s very disinterested lol. The only person that has any interest and is really respectful about my doll collecting is my best friend. She’s not into dolls herself but she finds them beautiful and is incredibly supportive

 

I don't avoid talking about it, but I don't talk about it regardless I guess. My mom is the one I talk to most about my hobby, cause she's also a collector- just of different things. And I've always loved porcelain dolls before BJDs. So she gets it. I guess I just don't really have smile IRL that I feel a connection to in regards to BJDs, so I'm not interested in sharing

 

My mom's the last one to join my sisters and I in doll ownership, and we're also all writer/artist types, so I've never felt the need to hide any of it, but I also haven't sat them down and made them listen to everyone's life stories.

They probably know the most about Vince, since he doesn't really require a lot of worldbuilding set-up... and they know a fair amount about Jack before he even gets here, since he's based on my D&D character. With Party Martian, they know almost as much as I do since they were there when I first saw him and have been around for his development. But I haven't gone into Marigold's world and story very much...