How have non doll collectors reacted to your collection?

Overall, pretty positive. I've got some (mostly off topic) that creep people out and I respect they don't want to see those. But the more neutral ones aren't an issue. My friends and family respect that these are important to me even if they don't personally care for my dolls. I'm sure there's rude people out there, but I haven't had to deal with any yet.

 

I don't really talk about them with non collectors but all the times I have mentioned them or accidentally someone saw them it was " you paid x amount of money for a doll??? " And then look at me like I have a stash of gold somewhere hidden and just pretend to be an average person.

 

Not as much judgement as I was expecting honestly? Some people think they're cute, some people just avert their eyes and don't say anything. It's funny to hear the range of opinions, though – my mom loves my Dearmine Lupys, while my grandma said they were the ugliest things she'd ever seen.

 

Everytime my friends see my (currently) biggest doll (~68 cm) they tell me to finally start charging him rent because he's so huge
Other than that they don't really comment on my dolls and I don't mention them either. Especially not how much I spent on them haha.

 

I've had several reactions over the years, but honestly the majority were rather neutral. Yes, non-collectors tend to be surprised and all, but I don't think I've ever had a truly terrible reaction from anybody. Often I'm even met with a certain degree of interest (until they see the prices haha).
The most memorable reaction was probably one of my co-workers who just happened to be at the office when my last doll got delivered (I have them shipped there by default since I'm there most of the time). She loved the doll and has been researching them ever since, occasionally asking some questions. Apparently she's saving up to get one herself!

 

I tell people on and off about them when It’s appropriate. Most people’s reaction is pretty positive. I work in the arts so it’s not so so unusual to have niche interests and hobbies. There is a painter who a college tutor of mine is friends with who has a collection of his own BJDs and they feature a lot in his paintings which is so cool! Honestly the most negative I get is the “you payed X amount for a doll” type stuff but I’m covered in tattoos, go to a lot of concerts and people think I spent too much on those things too so I feel like you can’t win with some people

 

A lot of my friends aren't into the hobby, but they're pretty positive towards my interest. Actually, a couple of them have favourites so that's a thing LOL.

I don't go too in depth, though, so that might help. Never mention costs.

 

So far I have had a few positives and 2 neutral reactions to Yukiko! My friends came over to play table top games and saw Yukiko and two other off topic dolls on display and when I mentioned wanting to take photos of them outside (I have flowers blooming in my yard), they started making suggestions on how to pose them. Then one of their daughters came in, saw Yukiko and gasped, giggled and hopped and said she was so pretty-- she came back a moment later with a butter cup flower she picked for Yukiko
At work, I made a collage of Yukiko pictures my computer background and my coworker walked by and gasps and asked what she was, I told her about BJDs and showed her some more photos and she said "Oh my god stop, you're going to make me want one!" She may or may not be knitting a little accessory for her, I am so excited

The neutral reactions were two male coworkers walking by, seeing the images and going deer-in-headlights saying either "Oh ... You got a baby doll...? O-Okay ..." Slides me a piece of paper to work on.

Or "What is that? The detail is crazy!" And staring for a moment and asking what BJDs were before going back to work topics.

Overall I have had a great experience and I will be working at the office more and more and travelling less for work so I hope to have Yukiko as a desk companion, can't wait to see what they think then haha

 

Actually I got people to like dolls too, even though they were never interested in the first place. I started with collecting monster high and rainbow high dolls and my friends were interested to get one too. If it's about bjds... Mhm some thought it is something weird like a fetish. Or they were genuinely scared. But most of the time actually very positive ^^

 

I have not shared my bjd with non collectors besides one of my friends and a couple of my in-laws. My friend never liked dolls but started to see the artistry in them when I restored vintage baby dolls. Then when I showed her bjd she wasn’t sure about them because to her they were a bit uncanny. I showed her the artistry in them as well and now she likes bjd the most of all my dolls. My mother in law appreciates the detail in the tiny outfits I have from seamstress but otherwise has no reaction to the dolls. She might react if she knew how much I spend on them

 

From my side, things are less positive but I still changed to tell in case some of you could relate. On my fathers family, I have a aunt that is very happy about my collection and used to sew/crochet for me and then provided me some materials for my dolls, she’s supportive on that part and my close family is rather neutral about it, even if my grandmother does not really understand it but I decided to not tell anyone about my doll because of the following story :
When I was a teenager and more into Barbie and other fashion dolls. One day,when I was around 13, still a Barbie collector, my mother quickly mentioned I was a doll collector with a cousin of mine without any bad intention or something (I was there too and had no problem talking about it back then). Unfortunately, some time later, I figured this cousin had told all my other cousins and aunt about it and they pretty much mocked me behind my back. My sister told me about it and I overheard comments later. Since my cousins were people I really appreciated back then, I felt really hurt by these remarks (on the positive side, I became aware of what kind of person they really were).
From this one bad experience, I unfortunately developed a fear to tell any other person who’s not in the hobby about it, even my closest friends, and even after going on more « collector dolls ». It’s now been a while since we’ve cut ties with this part of the family and I know there’s nothing wrong with being a doll collector, but it’s still hard for me to talk freely about it (it should not be, but sometimes bad experiences impact you more than they should I guess).
Moral of this history : never feel ashamed of your doll collection and don’t be bothered by mean people who are not worth your time nor attention

 

My boss thinks they sound like a cool artistic outlet, when I told him my plan for the weekend was to do faceups.

my aunt is a little afraid of dolls, but she’s an artist, so the artistry of faceups again got to her, and she was fascinated at the skill that I had to have to be able to paint that small.

several of my friends have seen the dolls. Usually they react by saying that they’re much bigger than they expected, and then again getting fascinated by the faceups. Some of them have even seen me paint faceups, and they really enjoy hanging out and gaming while I paint dolls.

my mom likes them enough she crochets things for them on the regular.

Even my ex thought the dolls were cool. She was fascinated with the recreations of characters we role played with.

my other Ex’s mother made a string of negative comments, but that was just the bitter vindictive person she was—nothing about the dolls made her have to do that.

 

The most negative reaction I've ever gotten about my dolls by non-collectors is "dolls creep me out, but because they're yours, I guess they're okay" by a couple of friends.

By and large, people consider it just one of my (many) quirks. The dolls wig people out way less than the long furby I keep on my bookcase overlooking our living room. That's the real eldritch abomination in our house!

 

I can very much relate to this. When I was in middle school, one girl who I thought was my friend found out about my dolls (mostly fashion dolls and American Girl type dolls back then) and she went on to tell the rest of the class. I was already the "weird kid" outcast, so that just made the bullying that much worse. It made me hide who I am and what I enjoy for years afterwards.

College was a turning point for me. I was so sad going to the dorms with none of my dolls for comfort, but when making the rounds and meeting other girls on my floor, one girl had a Ken doll on her desk. I asked about him, and she told me she had been dumped right before prom, so she bought herself a Ken doll who was "better looking, nicer and smarter" than her ex, got him a tux and took him to prom! She had no shame about it at all, and encouraged me to bring at least one of my dolls back next time I went home so he could hang out with Ken. No one judged me, and my roommate ended up bringing a couple of her plushies in as well. I think before the end of the semester, half the girls in our hall had a doll or plushie or figure of some kind with them!

Getting into BJDs just made me so much more confident--not only were other adults buying dolls, but they were playing with them, writing characters and stories, roleplaying, having meets and conventions for them--I found my people! It took awhile, but now most of my closest friends are in the hobby, and those who aren't at least accept my hobby and sometimes show interest. The only truly negative reactions have been from strangers or acquaintances whose opinions really don't matter. Only one friend thought it was weird and a waste of money, until I pointed out that her purse, shoe and horror figure collections were also unnecessary luxury items that a lot of people wouldn't understand, then it clicked for her.

Now, I've just decided that it's not about dolls vs being "normal", it's about whether people who claim to love you have respect for your hobbies. They don't have to understand it or be interested in it, but I think it's just cruel to mock someone for something harmless that makes them happy.

 

@CloakedSchemer your story speaks to me a lot too, finding aout BJDs and other collectors dolls from social media really helped me being more comfortable about my passion and find other people I could relate to, this helped a lot, even though I still don't share my hobby to anyone, meeting and talking with people with this same '"unusual" hobby is just amazing and makes you feel like you belong somewhere, in an actual community

 

I'm constantly carrying around sewing or knitting projects related to my dolls. When people ask about what I'm making, I answer honestly. People are usually taken aback my my intricate creations, so my doll hobby comes across as "artistic" rather than "weird."

 

My friend groups are generally people who share similar interests with me, or at least understand that certain things bring us joy. Even if we don't "get it," we support each other in our joy.

Outside of my friend groups, I don't share a whole lot about my personal life. Most of my hobbies are "weird," or traditionally geeky, so I'm pretty selective about who I tell about them.

 

Average person in my part of the country looks down upon anything vaguely cultural or artistic, reading, not following TV or sports. It generally marks you as pretentious or weird. I've kept my hobbies to myself since I saw how negatively people reacted to the mention of painting as a hobby before even seeing anything. Most of my friends were from the other side of the country where the mindset is different.

I guess I just want to say I'm pretty jealous and amazed that people get to talk about hobbies like this one with not just close friends but co-workers or acquaintances. It's like a different planet to me.

 

I'm pretty new to the hobby, but my immediate family and boyfriend think collecting dolls as an adult is creepy af, which sucks. But there are some colleagues at my workplace that actually think it's a super neat hobby. That was really surprising lol.

I had a doll delivered to my workplace recently because I didn't want her to sit out in the rain while I wasn't home, and everybody gathered around for the unboxing. It was really wholesome and there wasn't a single negative comment. I do work in tech though, and most of us are weirdos with niche hobbies, so maybe it's not that surprising.