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Is your doll habit a dirty little secret?

May 2, 2012

    1. I have always loved dolls so everyone knows and will purchase dolls for me for Christmas and birthdays which is great. :aheartbea dollie love!
       
    2. I wouldn't say it's a secret, but I don't advertise. If someone asks, I'll bring up the hobby, but for the most part I just don't talk about it to people who aren't interested. I've known enough people that are not too keen on dolls to actively volunteer my interest and participation in collecting dolls.
       
    3. I love dolls and have played with them and collected them my entire life. I really get my feelings hurt if someone tells me they think they are creepy because it seems like they are saying that I am creepy for having them. So that being said I don't really advertise that I collect dolls to people unless I am really close to them like my family and close friends I did show a picture of a doll to my boss she thought it was beautiful but wasn't to thrilled about the price. She likes to go to the casino and gamble that is her hobby dolls are mine and at least I have something to show for the money that I spend. I have other hobbies like jewelry making and sewing and cooking and I only talk about them with people I feel most comfortable with. I take my dolls on trips in the car sometimes but for the most part leave them at home because I am afraid of them getting damaged or broken. I know I really shouldn't care what people think about my dolls or me but I do. I do sometimes think I would like to take them to the fabric store with me though. I heard another lady brings her dolls in with her hmmm and I thought I was the only person in Missouri who collected dolls.
       
    4. I wouldn't take my dolls outside for shoots, I just hate when people stare at me. I hate having lots of public attention, it's just not me. I'd love to be able to not care! I really would, but my personality goes against it =( Saying that, I'm not embarassed of my dolls. My friends come over, and if they see them then that's okay. I actively chat away about them to my partner (who isn't that interested tbh xD) And I don't live with him so I could hide them if I wanted. But I don't. I wouldn't mind taking them places, but I'd hate the attention that goes with it =(
       
    5. i have always done what brings me joy and makes me happy as long as it is something that is not wrong ( has her moral standards) i am an adult over her 30s already when i was a child and in high school i used to worry too much about what people would think if i did something out of the ordinary...silly me!!! now i just simply...DON"T CARE!!! i can't wait to take my dolls out, i'll be doing so with my 10 yr old daughter who is anxious to have some BJD fun. i could give a squash about what people think, i don't even care if they would look at me weird..it's always been like that because i've always liked different stuff. we are going to enjoy ourselves and have a good time!! i cannot live my life by people standards, because people will always either like or dislike what you do and have divided opinions. i try to live my life by God standards, and since owning unique dolls and taking them out for fun or wearing weird clothes is not a sin i have to repent of, i really don't care how others view it.
       
    6. I'm definitely not embarrassed by my doll collecting. My dolls - BJD and others - are on display in my home and people who come to visit me can see my dolls. I also take my BJD out in public sometimes, and I am not embarrassed about that. I enjoy talking about my hobby to people who are interested in it. Generally, I find people are accepting of it and I think that's because I'm totally accepting of it myself. I'm not a fanatic, but I am enthusiastic and happy about my hobby, and I think my attitude has a lot to do with how others perceive me as 'a grown woman who still loves dolls'. I've never once been referred to as 'creepy' or 'weird' by a non-collector who's found out about my dolls. I think, if people act somewhat embarrassed when people 'discover' that they're a doll collector, the attitude of the person doing the discovering may be more negative. I think if you act ashamed, then other people might get the unintentional impression that it really is something to be ashamed or embarrassed about.
       
    7. Good heavens no! Why should it be? I'm at the age where I don't give a damn what other people think :lol: I only just discovered BJDs, and just got my first doll, and I'll tell anybody who listens! I'm having too much fun coming up with ideas for clothing for her :fangirl:

      [​IMG]
      dress01 by Raven Winterhawke, on Flickr
       
    8. My dolls are not my little secret. They cannot be since they take over the basement and the extra ro om (I have other dolls too, not just the bjds). I am comfortable taking the dolls outside of the house, to parks, to meet to take pictures. I don't advertise my hobby but my family knows I collect dolls as well as doll size things so they even look out for doll size items for me when they travel instead of buying human size things. I will talk about the doll with anyone who is interested.
       
    9. No way. :)
      I was into cosplay long before I found out about BJDs, and to most people that pretty much takes the cake for weirdness.

      I certainly wouldn't blurt out awkwardly about my hobby when first meeting someone, but I have pictures of my dolls on my Facebook and most, if not all of my family and friends know about them. If someone asks what I'm into? I'll run off a few of the more obvious things, and if they still seem interested, I'll say I like to sew for and do some photography with these special art dolls I have... and I always have pictures of them on my phone in case someone's response is "Oh? What kind of doll is that?"

      I'm fine taking them to meets in public places, and even to the fabric store with me if there's a need. That isn't to say I don't feel a bit uncomfortable if someone is continuously giving me the 'wtf' look and not bothering to come up and ask, but people tend to watch me whether I'm carrying a doll or not. I am either amazingly gorgeous and charismatic or completely horrifying.
       
    10. Yep, big secret. Being a guy makes it tough to publicly enjoy things that are usually considered to be in the feminine realm of things. Lots of judging would go on and so I prefer to avoid it and just enjoy my hobby without others knowing about it.

      Friends/family probably wouldn't understand and wouldn't let the topic go, and it could potentially ruin it all for me.
      I did show a couple people my little anthro squirrel bjd because I knew there would be less judging with him than say my 1/3 scale girl, and got mixed results from it. I could tell they kinda thought he was neat but still said he was a bit creepy.
       
    11. How could anyone think a squirrel doll was anything but adorable?

      My other hobbies have conditioned my family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances to expect the unusual. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons around 1980, back when girls didn't game, I have been a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism for 26 years, I do a little LARPing. I think they all find my BJD collecting refreshingly normal by comparison. I used to be really terribly shy, when I was a teen ager..... the best thing about being middle aged is that you just really don't care anymore. I take my dolls to dinner at restaurants, I have occasionally taken them to work ( I work for a large international company) anyone visiting my home is usually treated to the site of a bald naked doll lolling around while I sew for him or her. I have no secrets. I DO try to talk about things other than my BJDs... but they are so interesting, it's sort of hard not to talk about them.
       
    12. I don't hide my dolls anywhere. The only thing I do hide is the price so that my parents do go off and tell me I am wasting my money. I don't buy dolls that often, maybe once a year. But they still won't stop that. I show everyone my dolls and the last one I got my mother said she loved her, now that made me feel good. :)
       
    13. I wouldn't call it a "dirty" secret, but yes, I keep my doll hobby to myself. My husband knows obviously, and his cousin (because he is also into nerdy kinds of things). I think that is pretty much it.... I'm a very private person in general, so I find it hard to share things with people. I don't think I'm ashamed exactly, but I just don't trust other people to understand.
       
    14. Kind of in the middle. I have plenty of friends who don't give a shit that I'm in this hobby and some even like to ask me how my dolls are doing (which is really fun to answer). My parents although almost look at this hobby as being irresponsible with my money. Mom's a little bit more understanding. Dad not so much. As for taking my boy out into the public....well.....the only time I've ever done that without going to a meet would be when I go to conventions (unrelative to the hobby) and carry him around for people to see and ask questions. I do this because that was how I became interested in the hobby myself. As for just walking around in public casually with him would be a big no. People in the area I live in are nice but don't take things being out of the norm too well. Some can be very judging or belittling. And of course there's always that possibility of damaging your doll.
       
    15. I hate being teased about my dolls, so I don't volunteer the information to non-doll people. If someone finds out and asks me, I am happy to discuss it. But I often wish I hadn't brought it up at work, and I really hate it when people laugh about it behind my back, thinking I can't hear it.

      I would like to be able to say I don't care what people think and I'll do what I want... but I do care. It bothers me when people are mean about it. It's not enough to make me stop taking them outdoors for pictures, though.

      And nothing will make me not love having them.

      Linda S.
      galatia9
       
    16. No. I openly talk about my hobbies. My doll hobbies, my taste in film and animation, my affinity to rats...
      These things will all get scoffs from "normal" people. But in the end, "normal" people are just that judgmental, cruel, and ignorant plague on humanity that stops us from moving forward.

      No one should ever let these people effect their judgement.
      I think once a certain age hits, people divide... They wind up open minded, creative, interesting...
      Or they end up judgmental, bullying, little jerks, who do only what society tells them to.
      They think anyone owning a doll is filling a void, anyone with a less conventional pet is creepy, anyone who watches cartoons has a mental handicap or is creepy, and so on, and so on.

      If people ask me what they like, I tell them. I don't blurt it out for attention, but I would never hide it.
      If they scoff, make a joke, or look at me weird, I never speak to them again.

      Sounds tough, but I think good riddance.
      You shouldn't allow toxic people to be effect you, and drag you down in life.
      You shouldn't call these people your "friends" and lie to keep their good favor.
      Anyone who would treat you differently over harmless interests is not your friend.

      True, doll photoshoots in public can be a little awkward, they some times make me feel a little self conscious...
      But I never blame that on meeee being weird, or being embarrassed on my behavior, I blame it instead on all the cruel, ignorant people in the world, who are still willing to scream and throw a pitchfork at something outside of their perfect little world. :/

      NEVER let them change how you see the world, and how you choose to live. ;)
       
    17. I wholeheartedly agree!

      I haven’t got my first BJD yet but I don’t have any issues taking any dolls out in public. If I have a particular shot in mind or just see a great place for a pic I will get them out. I have no hesitation in talking about them to anyone about them. I’ve had a love of dolls since I was little so there wouldn’t be many on my family who don’t know I collect them. Most of my friends think my pics are great and can see how beautiful the dolls are even if they are not into them themselves. I have one friend who can’t see the attraction but that doesn’t stop us being friends.

      My partner has made all sorts of furniture for them and has even made a ¼ scale kayak and we’ve taken doll out in it, in a small lagoon at a holiday spot. We even took a doll to the beach which was quite populated. It was funny cause a father and his daughters walked passed and said them “look Barbies on the beach” (the doll was not a barbie). The girls had great big smiles on their faces. I’ve even taken to be photographed in front on the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge!

      They are a great conversation starter.
       
    18. My doll hobby...Is a sort of secret. It's on a need to know basis with my father and a totally open thing with my mother. My mom and I do things on the DL involving the hobby like swaps, buying stuff those things and my dad only knows when he see's I got a new doll or if I'm sewing for one I haven't announced.
       
    19. Certainly not, and I learned this the hard way. One time I let a fellow co-worker who was highly regarded in our career field into my home and happened to have my previous army of Lati Yellows out on display, I had forgotten to put them away before this person's visit. I should have known what was to come next as he gave me the disgusted "Dude, that's so creepy. Why do you have freaky little kids? That's the weirdest thing I ever saw!" And it so hurt my feelings because this person was lauded and everyone took his opinion as fact, so naturally I did too. He wouldn't shut up about it either and kept going on about how I could want to have a bunch of "gross kids" posed in my living space followed by more insults. This was back in early 2009.

      His words never went away and they were the first (and last) extremely judgmental words I heard about my hobby, I didn't know how to deal with it at all back then. Months later, I begun to sell all of my Lati Yellows (So glad I didn't sell my MSD and SDs; they weren't critiqued as they were being stored, away from any potential light) due to this incident and so regret it to this day. Some of these dolls I don't feel like I could ever get back, even if I had the same income as before it'd take me months of hunting down a potential seller and it breaks my heart to think it could have been prevented. In my eyes, I think if I had been more proud of my 'habit' and stood by them versus trying to keep it a secret or not standing up for myself, then I could have saved myself the heartbreak I felt when I realized I just sold some of my favorite dolls. Why? Because some prominent journalist told me there was something 'wrong' with my hobby and I hadn't embraced dolls as another aspect of me and an interest I felt passionately about; back then, I didn't share my more non-generic interests or stand behind them very well.

      I took a hiatus from BJDs and this hobby's amazing community for so many years because what I had done extremely upset and disappointed me. I only just treated myself to a new Lati Yellow in January to kick start 2013 as a positive new year after feeling such regret over what I did thanks to the encouragement of a friend whom I told this story to, I've come a long way since then. My family also loved my hobby and never understood why I stopped talking about BJDs until I admitted that I sold my Lati Yellows so many years back despite how much I loved them (my mother also has her own Lati Yellow and would ask about my army of Latis, I'd just change the topic on what I had done) and they were in shock that I'd let someone so easily judge me and that I'd react in such a way to that. I've learned how to approach extreme criticism differently if encountered with it again and all of my RL friends know that I proudly adore my BJDs and it's no secret anymore, I prefer it this way so much more and honestly I don't care if a doll "creeps out" or "disgusts" a guest upon seeing them. This is my hobby and I'm so proud that it isn't some big secret anymore, it also mentally prepares me to deal with criticism that anyone with an interest in dolls may face due to the portrayal of dolls in media. Thankfully that hasn't been the case though and my friends love how outspoken and proud I am about my hobby! :)
       
    20. Just the opposite, actually. My friends from school wished me luck on a doll auction yesterday. :) I don't think that there are too many people I know who don't know about my dolls. xD