Dolls Based Off "Yourself"

That’s really encouraging, thank you. It gives me a ray of hope at the end of what was a very rough day.

 

You're very welcome! I've had a rough day too, I'm glad I could help!

 

I think I'm so awful to have a doll of myself, I'm not even an idol.
But when I see someone that is beautiful and successful, I just think it's great if these has a doll like him/hers!

 

I've thought about this idea before, but I don't think I would actually do it. I'd rather make dolls into characters that don't exist yet. And first I would have to find a sculpt that looks like me and there probably isn't one, although Maskcat Doll Frances is the closest resemblance I've seen.

 

One of my girls is loosely based off me looks wise. All of my BJDs bear a couple of similar traits to me. Pale, flat chested, long haired, and light eyed. Lmao

 

Many of my dolls represent aspects of myself in their characters; whether it be a mutual like/dislike, or a shared taste in clothes, hair style, or eye colour; there's a bit of myself in all my dolls. That said, I have been trying to create a sort of mini-me/ideal-me doll for a while now and it's proving hard. Finding the right body and the right head combination is driving me up the wall. Most of the heads I've found have really large necks, but the bodies closest to me have really narrow necks and shoulders, meaning the heads would look very weird and out of proportion. Bah.

 

I think that would just depress me, lol.

 

Honestly, I worry quite a lot about doing this by accident. I think it would be Bad For Me. A lot of the designs I make for doll ideas, I realise they look a lot like goals I have for myself, and maybe from a mental health perspective, that could get weird quickly.

So I'm trying to focus on making the designs which look like someone I might like to be into goals for myself, and I try and be aware of what my subconscious is trying to tell me.

And then I try and consciously create doll designs which look different. But I never like them as much.

 

I had a lot of difficulty with my appearance up until I was in my mid-20s, so the dolls I found very beautiful usually looked completely different from me. But, like seeing more representation in media, I discovered that having a doll that looks like you teaches you to appreciate your own unique beauty as well. I really don't believe there's a single ugly person in the world; if they are ugly it's because of their personality. But all features are beautiful in their own way, and their diversity should be celebrated.

I have been making a serious effort to buy dolls that look like me. All but one of my dolls are brunettes (one has silver hair), but they all have different eye colors to avoid looking exactly the same. There's one that looks nearly exactly like me, but it's kind of a chubby baby-like doll and has a lighter complexion. Oops, looks like I need to buy another doll so I can have a perfect twin

 

I would absolutely love a doll that looks like me. I've always had a little bit of a complex because I don't look like what people of my ethnicity looks like and growing up I've only had one or two Barbie dolls that kind of looked like me but not really (the High School Musical Gabriella doll and the Dolls of the World - Philippines doll). If I could find a doll that looked like me (with my skin tone and everything) I would be so ecstatic.

On the other hand, my husband has the kind of look that could be found in Roman or Greek statues (face not body, hahaha) or in English portraits or even classic Rock and Roll artists so I guess that means he's classically handsome which makes me happy but envious at the same time. I've had people come up to me and say, "Oh, your husband looks like Ben Affleck" or "Oh, he looks like James McAvoy" or "Oh wow, he looks like a young Bob Dylan" and it amazes me how he's like a chameleon and fits into whatever physical aesthetic a person has. I literally found an ancient bust at the Getty Villa that looked like him that even my friends were like, "That looks like Daniel!" I also even found a Ken doll that looked like him (eyes same shade of blue-grey, hair parted the same way with the same dark curls, etc) and I bought that because I thought it was so cool (he didn't think it was cool, but I did it anyway, bwahahahaha). He's like meh about it and says it's all in my head. But again, having grown up with nothing that looks like me, I'm envious at the accessibility of finding something that looks like him.

I think most people would be creeped out if they saw a doll that looked exactly like a living person so I would probably be a little ashamed to have one that looked like me. However, again growing up with dolls that didn't look like me and still don't (and I'm nearly 40!), I think I rather take the risk of others being creeped out just to have the satisfaction of having a doll that looked like me.

 

Like a few other people have said, I would love a doll that has features that reflect mine rather than the typical European or East Asian features that we see a lot on dolls.

Representation in general is an issue in the BJD community, and although some companies are offering darker resins it would be nice to have dolls with features specific to ethnic minority groups rather than just eurocentric features on darker resin.

For me specifically, I’d love a doll with an aquiline nose as I have one and it’s not a feature that’s usually seen as desirable despite being a feature in so many ethnicities all over the globe.

 

I can’t really think of a reason I’d do a doll of me, as I am. I mean, do t get me wrong, I think I’m really pretty. I’ve got great self esteem (now), but having a doll of me would invite so much comparison. She wouldn’t be constantly fluctuating in weight, because she can’t get sick, and I can. Her hair would always be black, and mine grows brown roots that I’m at war with. The blue on her hair wouldn’t wash out—she doesn’t wash her hair at all, in fact.

Now, I’ve done self-insert character dolls. Rina (now not a self insert and named Shrike) was my character for years, who slowly became more her own character and less me. I never wanted to look like her, but she was this really powerful magical being, and I vibe with that. Her name was literally a part of mine.

Vidania is my current self-character. She happened by accident. I made a dnd character with a tragic backstory that I didn’t realize lined up with my own circumstances that I was, at the time, denying. She is trying to romance a character played by my girlfriend (which she did before I did, mind you!) She even has my mental illness (I didn’t know I was bipolar, and her emotions were “like mine but worse.”) So she’s me kn the inside. On the outside, she isn’t. We’re both short, ans fairly slight, and we both like unnatural hair colours (hers purple, mine blue-black). She’s very physically scarred, and very extensively tattooed. Youd never confuse us. I love having a copy of her. It feels like we’ve gotten through a lot together.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently vain about self sonas, self inserts, dolls of yourself, or anything else like that. I think they’re often quite a healthy thing to have, for me especially in fiction, to process my own experiences through someone, or even just for the vicarious experiences.

 

I don’t, and I don’t personally feel the need to, but I do think it’s neat if others do, just not my cup of tea.
It’d also just be ridiculously hard to find a sculpt even remotely similar to me, considering the deficit of Chubby dolls and non-typical European features in this hobby

 

I always feel like my dolls are representations of what I find beautiful, but also like you said sometimes I feel like I might be subconsciously building the people I wish I were.... I used to really want a doll that was a different version of myself and maybe I've been doing that all along without realizing it!