Too young for the hobby?

I concur, my 11 year old is more careful with her bjd (that she earned the money for herself) Than I am with mine (i.e. taking them outside for pictures where they get dirty).
She holds her as if she's very fragile. Her hair doesn't even have frizzles or tangles. I don't think every kid needs to be this conciencious about their bjd, but it demonstrates the point.

 

I just got my 9 and 11 year old there first dolls. They have violins and mp3 players. my oldest has a 4g phone all of which they take very good care of. So when they asked me if they could have a doll too i felt they were old enough to care for it. They do a good job taking care of the things that are fragile that they love and enjoy.

 

I think it complete depends on the child.

My sister got her first american Girl doll when she was 5, i got mine at 8. My mom is not a doll person, but she explained that these were nice, expensive dolls that we couldn't throw in the pool or toss in a washing machine after dragging through the dirt. She showed us how they had wigs, not rooted hair, and it couldn't be washed or cut and needed a special brush that wouldn't make it fuzzy. At first, she supervised playtime with these dolls to be sure we understood how to pose them (actually moving joints, not just forcing to sit) and care for them. she kept easily lost and fragile things, likes glasses or hair ribbons, in the box until we were old enough to get it. Even with her not liking dolls, she was able to teach us how to take care of one.

When I was 11, I started collecting Babysitters Club dolls, which had a stringing system, though it was a rubber cord and not meant to take apart. After so much play, the cord often broke, causing a similar reaction to unstringing a bjd. My dad wasn't a doll person either, but he does understand how things work and he would "restring" the doll for me and show me how he did it.

All this being said, I think if you have kids that understand the value and are taught to take care of their things, an 8 or 9 year old would be okay with a bjd. I wouldn't spend hundreds on a limited doll for them, but an inexpensive resin they can play with would be fine. maybe, since it's expensive, have the child help earn the money to get it to prove they really want it.

On the other hand, there are adults that don't take care of anything they own and carelessly break expensive things and expect to be handed a new one. So I really don't think age has anything to do with maturity.

 

I just got a little piggy bjd for my 9 yrs old and he love it... he's telling me that he will make money and buy more piggy.. what a cute little boy.. it's never too young to start the hobby

 

I have 3 kids 2 boys of almost 13 and 14.5 and a little girl of 3.
My little girl grabs dolls by the hair and when she's done with them she blundly "trows" them wherever she feels they should be and goes on to the next thing she likes to do. No BJD material there yet!
My almost 13 year old... hes messy, doesnt take care of his stuff...chaos rules in his room and he does EVERYTHING in 2 or more stages without ever finishing what hes suposed to be doing (till I give him a really good kick in the butt that is!) No BJD material there either.
My Oldest boy (14.5) was very carefull with his stuff from 10 and up. Cleans his own room (and when I say clean I meen he puts everything back where it belongs AND dusts AND vacuém cleans!) he almost never beaks anything and when he does hes devistated it broke.
I would say it REALLY depends on the character of the child at what time in his or her life a BJD could be a good idea. Specially too because of the price and research needed to be done to take care of it. If the child has a short interest span and will move on to the next hobby its sure to leave the idea of having a BJD long before he or she ever comes near one
That being said... how many children are being seen as responsible enough to have their own pet? Ok a pet isnt THAT expensive if you only look at the money concerned. But I see a lot of kids getting a rabbit or a hamster without parents even blinking their eyes. I find it somewhat amusing to read about if a 12 year old is old enough to take care of a BJD when most children get a pet at a much younger age...

 

I am currently 14, I don't think there is a "young" age but maturity level. If the 12 year old is mature enough to handle the doll and to take care of it then I don't see why it would be a problem. If the 12 year old has no idea how to handle a BJD then there is a problem. Before anyone gets a doll they should be well educated on how to use the doll.

I was about 5 when I got a porcelain doll. I took good care of it but eventually I never really liked it much anymore by the time I was 10 so I gave it away to another owner.

 

More so than the child's ability to take care of the doll is more the parent's ability to pay for one. At that age, the responsibility to getting the doll is in the parent's hands and, clearly, what is a hefty price tag for most is not an issue with her.
I was never a doll or Barbie person growing up, so I had model horses. I have over 300 now (please shoot me, haha!) and they range from $5 all the way to $1,000. Most nice ones are in the price range of BJDs and my parents funded that hobby for many years. I was responsible enough to handle them and keep them in good condition from the time I was 7 years old: I'm 19 now. The only broken or scuffed ones are ones I made the mistake of letting my friends touch xD
So, as most have said, it depends mostly on the individual child and the parent's financial situation.

On a side note, look at the gifts people are buying for their children now. iPads. SmartPhones. Laptops. These are all the price of a doll xD

 

I was 13, when I got Imelda: I scraped together allowances, birthday money, and Christmas money to get her ordered, and I was the happiest little teenager when her kit arrived.

Now, she was no pretty sight, once she was assembled (due to me stringing her entirely wrong...), and her faceup looked horrendous. The clothes I made for her were even worse. She looked "abused" to anyone else, but she was my little treasure.

For going on 6 years, now, I've been making her clothes and painting her all by myself. We've grown up together, and my skill level has certainly improved. I'm not the best seamstress or faceup artist, but I can do things that none of my classmates here at my art school can do-- I can sew little tiny seams, paint little tiny eyelashes, and I feel comfortable doing super-detailed things on a tiny scale. It's affected my art style a lot, and I think my concept of aesthetics has definitely been refined.

So, if the kid is artistically-inclined at all, I'd say it's a good investment.

 

Well It really comes down to how they act and how responsible they are. Because for some people it could be a flash of the pen interest so in the end it really just depends how responsible you are. :3

 

I've been thinking about this lately from a slightly different point of view. When I was a kid, I wanted to collect dolls -- of course then they were antiques and 'collector dolls,' and I had an old antique that was in my family. I saved up money from allowances and yard sales and such and bought a few collector dolls of my own. I remember I wrote one of the doll collecting clubs in my area (this was, of course, long before the Internets) and asked to join. I couldn't because I wasn't 18 yet.

A very nice lady a few towns over wrote me a lovely letter, though, and encouraged me to keep collecting dolls, and I have a whole cupboard mostly of porcelain dolls still. Sometimes I wonder if I would've kept up with the hobby more if I'd had more of a group around me (like you guys and my other friends with BJDs). I guess it's the 'get 'em young' idea, heh. But I guess I think if someone has the maturity to not hurt their dolls and the interest, we should encourage them.

 

I've been reading through this thread a bit, and I have to say that in some cases, yes, there are some children who are not responsible enough to handle having something like a BJD. When I was a kid, I have dolls coming out my ears--procilne, cloth, barbie, the list goes on. I had an american girl doll when I was nine--that was my big gift for the year since we lived off of my grandmother's social security and THAT was something I'd been wanting since I was in six or seven (I've had that doll for nineteen years. Dang o.O). It wasn't so much me being responsible enough to handle the more expensive dolls but we lacked money. Even then, I don't think my grandmother would have bought it for me if she had been rolling in cash. she would NOT have enjoyed the fact I've spent 800+ total on my SD so far.

I do think that some of you who are appalled at a parent with or without money giving their kids BJDs and other expensive gifts are being just a little harsh and I'm appalled at how judgmental this thread seems to be. I also don't think that the child needs to spend hours researching just to consider even wanting a BJD. Had I seen one when I was the age I got my AG? SO would have wanted it, and begged, and it would have been just as treasured as all of the other dolls that I had (and, I admit, likely just as played with). When it comes down to it, BJDs are dolls. Yes, extensions of our creativity, ourselves, and yes, at times of our wallets but they are STILL DOLLS. Even if the child knows what they're getting into, there will still be those around them that still think that dolls are for babies and for children and that the BJD the child so covets has little real value and can be tossed about.

 

I was a mature 12 year old, I would be afraid of a 12yo having a bjd though. I mean, if they could prove that they can take care of one and not loose he/she then maybe. If the child is also willing to save up money and maybe the parents meeting them half way with it then I'd say they are definitely mature enough.

 

It could really depends on the individual child, but I know people who are under 15 and I think it's too young. One reason why I think that is they often don't have their own money and don't know how to dispose... What I want to say, they don't know how hard is to earn money, don't know money value and it's better when for the first they learn how to dispose OWN money and then spend it. Parents buying everything? Not good for them, they can get used to every time they want something - they get. Moreover, hobbies in young age has tend to change often, so it would be a shame if it could be only temporal notion.

 

When I first got into the hobby I was around 13. I confess that at the time it was more of a branch off from my old Barbies, but 5 years later I'm still very much keen on the hobby and still 'play' with and take care of my doll and have another one due to arrive in a few months.

I think that personality is a large factor in whether someone is ready for such an expensive and intricate hobby. Some people are simply not mature enough no matter what age they are - I've no doubt that some 40 year olds may have purchased a doll and tired of it very quickly. I do think the number of people that are too immature to enjoy the hobby properly decreases as age rises, but I don't think the possibility of an iresponsible personality gets eliminated instantly just because someone is older.

I loved and cared for my doll because at 13 I was able to grasp that this is something I've put a lot of money (I paid for him myself) and emotional attachment in to and I have to be careful with it. In a similar way I never broke any of my toys as a child because I understood 'this toy has significance in some way'. Some people have that sense from a young age, others acquire it with time, and some people just never get that sense of responsibility.

 

That's what I have to keep reminding myself! Money is different these days. As I calcify into an old fart, I have to keep reminding myself to check on the current scale of what things cost, so I don't keep saying "Well, in MY day..." But srsly, when I was a kid, fifty bucks might as well have been a hundred. Now it's like the $100 bill is the new $20. What my sister spends on her kids' toys is absolutely nuts, but it's just the going Price Of Things.

If there had been BJDs when I was a teenager in the 80s, I'd've been all over them ("ZOMG you can make your own hot little goth boys!?!"), but I could never have afforded them. I would've had to save up; babysitting paid $3/hour; so I'd've had to start at age 15, when I got my first part-time job. Oh wait, no, the job only paid $4.50/hour, so I still would've been at least 16 by the time I had enough money for a BJD. ^^ So Volks's "15 & up" warning sounds about right to me.

But of course, I cannot speak for the experience of other girls.... I was not a doll-person, after childhood (I got my first BJD at 35!). I think those who've spent their youth collecting dolls often have a sort of head-start on the focus & maturity to collect high-end items. I've known some kids who seem to be curators, instead of children... the type of 12-year-old you'd trust with BJDs. You can always spot a future collector.

 

A nine-year-old related to me has referred to his toys as "collectibles" for years and flatly refuses to let anyone else play with them for fear they might be damaged. He would be a good candidate for a BJD, if, of course, he wasn't invested so heavily in Halo sets.

 

I am 14 this year and although I knew I want to be in this hobby the moment I saw it. But I researched a lot online to learn more about them, like basics like wig caps and yellowing. Buying a bjd on an impulse without prior knowledge or preparation seem rather frightening. But maturity differ for different people. And it is her money, not mine, so it dose not really bother me.

 

I am now sixteen, I first heard of BJD when I was just 10 from my cousin and been always wanting one, but at my age back then, I think they were relatively expensive, then I turn interest Tonner Dolls since I was 12 and by that age my mom bought me a Lara Croft Tonner Doll, then when I'm 15 I've decided to convince my mom to stop buying me Tonner Dolls and instead buy me a BJD which I like more. I love my mom!

 

Age is a tricky one, but we forget sometimes some children can be suprisingly mature for their age. Sometimes wary of older people with treatments of dolls, so I'd say its maturity over age.

Jealous the child's mother is so willing to buy her one though! Most kids have to save up for their BJD...

 

I did alot of research, watching videos on taking care of bjds and all sorts of things before i got my first doll. (My family was shocked at the prices though).

I think it depends if you are mature enough to handle something worth a lot of money and know what you are getting into when you join the hobby.
For anyone young or getting into the hobby, well you should do PLENTY of research! Make sure when you get the doll be sure its the right one for you and be prepared for the price and responsibility cause theese little treasures are quite expensive! :P