How open are you with your BJD as a hobby?

I have separate social media accounts for my doll stuff just because employers love to creep, and I try to keep things as boring/professional as possible on my public accounts. Otherwise, it's not really something I hide at all.

I'm not running around screaming, "I LOVE DOLLS!" at the top of my lungs or anything, but my doll collecting comes up in conversation just as often as any of my other hobbies would. I always let people know that they should expect dolls when I add them on Snapchat for one, so it's definitely not a secret to anyone I keep in touch with there at this point.

 

I'm a career academic so I really don't care who knows. I'll gladly talk to anyone about it. My peers and professors already know I'm eccentric so I'm sure it wouldn't surprise them. I've always been a black sheep among my other friends and family, so I don't really care what they think. I do what I love, and I try to be very open about everything.

 

Honestly, I think everyone who's actually gotten to know me (or who already knew me) in the last years probably knows my dolls exist. Like, co-workers, friends, most if not all of my extended family (to be fair, that's less than ten people), dungeons and dragons group (my tiny was put in charge of a d20 one session 'cause she was already in my purse), random staff people at my uni, my roommates... I don't think most of them are aware of the time and effort I pour into my little resin "children" (exceptions: my coworkers, roommates, and immediate family) but I don't make any effort at all to hide them. Heck, if you're friends with me on Facebook, I post pictures I'm especially pleased with from time to time. One of the guys in my educations class has asked me about them a couple of times now.

I live in a town where it's entirely normal to go get a slice of pizza for lunch and end up in line behind an elderly gentleman in a kilt, a girl with green hair, and somebody whose gender cannot be determined without asking. The BJD hobby isn't that strange in the scheme of things.

 

I am very open about it, if people don't like it, or think it 's freaky I don't care. I'm happy it make me feel happy and that's what counts.

 

I usually let it slightly slip in when having conversations about hobbies. And when I get honest questions I gladly talk about it. I don't get to know a lot of people so I'm always very cautious about the things I talk about.

 

I don't share any of my hobbies with my family, so my BJD things are known to my best friend, and some other friends following my Instagram. I love BJDs partly because I love photography, so, mainly people focus on the photos I have taken, not my dolls.
P.S. I'm introverted. I don't share things with other people, and no one wants to know what I am up to or how I live my life

 

I visited my 70 year old dad in Florida last week. Didn't mention my new hobby. Next time he visits me, and sees them in person, I think it'll be more understandable.

 

Very open, I have co-hosted bjd panels at local conventions and I’m one of the admins of a local meet group (that admittedly has not formally met in a while). I’ve got doll WIP and meet photos on my social media so my non-doll friends usually know about at least a few aspects of the creative part and social sides of the hobby. I think it’s funny when someone who basically thinks most of us ‘play barbies’ discovers how much time and effort some hobbyists devote to the creativity and DIY.

 

So much so that I think it annoyed people. I had two abs bjds in the past. Now I just have a bunch of other off topic dolls and am waiting for my first resin doll to come.

 

Alot of my friends and family support me as an artist. So I introduced my bjds as an extension of my art interest and they seemed to except it really well. A couple of co-workers think they are creepy, but over all are supportive. I don't go around flaunting my hobby as it is a big part of my private life, but since I'm trying to draw attention to my art, it has gone public on alot of my social media accounts. By no means am I ashamed of the hobby, and at the end of the day if they don't like it, it doesn't really matter to me. I don't think I ever let on to the price of my dolls though lol I think that would be what would tip some people over the edge!

 

I don’t bring it up but, if someone asked if I collected something or had any special interests I would most likely add BJDs to my list of things I enjoy!

My family and close friends obviously know I have BJDs but aside from my dad and husband teasing me about how ~creepy they find the whole thing, no one really cares, lmao. I’ve had porcelain dolls/Barbies/action figures all my life so when I announced I liked resin dolls because you could customize them heavily, no one batted an eye and just assumed yeah, that was something I’d be into. I also think because of all the porcelain dolls my grandmother/mother have bought me over the years, no one made a stink about the cost of them either so that was a bonus!

 

If I’m asked about what hobbies I have, then they’re going to hear that I like re-painting dolls and customizing them. If they ask what I’m doing this weekend, and I know the conditions will be appropriate, I’ll mention I’m going to re-paint some doll heads.

But mostly, I talk about sewing. It’s more common knowledge that I’m into drawing and crafting than it is that most of it revolves around dolls, any dolls, not just BJDs.

 

Life is so short, so my mentality personally is that to just be you and don't stress yourself out about what other people think . Recently (about 2 days ago) we wen't on a trip and I took along my little Mallory. I guess she isn't little she is an MSD :P. I carried her around at the tourist spots so I could take photos etc! It was quite fun and a couple of people actually came up to me and asked me about her and if they could take a picture of her! Enjoy your hobby whenever and wherever you want xo

 

did't not go around told the world about it , but most of my friends and family know i in this hobby.
but i do keep it “ personal ” from colleague .

 

Sadly, I am one of those people who can be described as completely closet in the sense that only my cousin/bestfriend knows about it. I even have a separate profile for doll stuff as every one of my colleagues kinda don't get it especially when they ask about the price and reason as to why I am in this hobby

But I love my dolls and this hobby so I am not going to stop for anyone or even mildly lose interest

 

The only people who know that I’m into BJD is my partner, a couple of friends and one family member. I keep it hush hush from everyone else because I know that the remarks that they make can be hurtful which will then cause me to lose my interest in the hobby.

 

In the middle, some know, others I say I sew for dolls as a business and leave it at that....

 

Only my partner and very close friends knows about my dolls. I tired to be open to my co-workers and family before and I can sense instant judgement from them. To them I was too old for dolls and when they found out the price for them, they didn't even try to understand my hobby. So after that I don't activity tell people about it or share it on my social media.

 

I'm slowly opening up about the bjd stuff as far as social media goes. I don't post on my personal facebook feed about it, but I post more in groups than I used to. I've gotten instagram to work lately so I've been posting more doll photos up there and I'll try to get back into doing that on tumblr as well. The two people that know about it in person are my mom and boyfriend, both are pretty chill about it.

 

I openly tell people that I collect dolls but I don't post any pics on facebook. Facebook for me is for other things, not dolls. I do post a lot of pics to instagram and thus people know about my dollies.