What role do dolls play in your life?

They are are like toys to me. (I know some people don't like this because they see them as true friends and family member...)
They can make me happy. When I'm busy with something else, they will just sit there. But i don't like to sell them, since they have memories.

 

A creative inspiration. I must admit I don't really get sentimental about the things I collect, but I appreciate them all the same.

 

They are a creative outlet and a place of peace for me.

 

I love everyone's unique answers here. It really shows how our dolls are meaningful. I think for my dolls, they are a way to escape to my own world. I can create characters and personalities then make them things. They offer a huge outlet for creativity and customization. I love how BJDs are basically a "create a character" game except that you can hold them and you fall in love with them

 

For me my dolls are a way of me having an escape. I look at them spend time with them, and dream up amazing adventure they go on. They also are like collectors items to me.

I'm a harscore collector of beautiful and unique things. And my bjds arent any different. I love the look of them. They seem to comfort me.

 

Right now my only bjd helps me with sewing and makes me smile when I don't feel like it (major depresion). She also bring backs memories of childhood, since she reminds me of one of my fav characters from the book of my childhood. And I love doll craft. There's something superhero-esque about the industry for me.

 

My doll collection, not just my BJDs, help fill that spot inside that never got to play enough as a kid. I didn't have a horrible childhood by any means, but my parents did put a lot of pressure on me to ignore typical "kid's stuff" because in their mind it wouldn't help me get straight A's. I had a Barbie only because an aunt gifted me one, and I only got clothes for her because my lovely grandma made outfits and gave them to me when we visited once a year. My parents just never saw value in play time. They thought if I wasn't reading, I should be doing something productive like helping clean the house.

So my dolls are therapeutic in a way. If I were still in touch with my folks they would be appalled at the amount of money I invest in them. There's a petty part of me that feels good about that, too.

But mostly they give me a fun distraction after working on a computer running reports and answering emails all day. And I can knit for them and they don't care if the sweater has an "unintended feature" where I missed a cable.

 

1. Companionship. I'm without local friends and a significant other; gets pretty lonely around here. Something with a personality and pretty face makes for a nice, huggable second choice.

2. Tangible representations of key characters from my spec scripts. Seeing them in person is a wonderful tool to have at hand, among others.

 

Horcruxes--uh--I mean--

I hate feeling out of control of myself or my domain. There's a secret god complex in there somewhere, and they feed right into it. ("You wouldn't exist if it weren't for me, feeble minion!") They also keep me writing. The convenience of having physical anchors for the markers of an imaginary world is something I never take for granted, because it seems I spend my whole life trying to get there, and it's comforting to know it 'exists' even if I only get to look inside. I like to think of them as guardians of the house as well.

Truthfully, they are fragments of my own ego--I might go so far as to say my soul--that once birthed ran farther than I ever expected, and that just makes me happy.

 

Mine are an outlet of comfort. My Mother has her own dolls, my grandmother had dolls as well. Dolls have always been a big part of my life. I've never been "disturbed" by dolly parts hanging around the house or felt like it was weird to have them because they were just an extension of my life.
I'm now at the time in my life that I have a growing family and can't always tend to my dolls. But they're always there. When my two year old son naps or goes to sleep for the night, I get the opportunity to play with them. When my daughter is born this Christmas, I'll hopefully have another little love who will want dolls too when she's older.
They're nice to have, they let me forget my stress and be a kid again.

 

They're my "always there" friends.

Let me explain further--I have exceedingly poor socialization skills due to an autism spectrum disorder. When I was a small kid, I was frequently left out from birthday parties, play groups, the whole mess of it because I didn't relate well to other children. I didn't realize I was supposed to be trying to make friends at school and I didn't know how to do so. I usually wandered around the playground alone, I sat at lunch alone, and when I switched schools in fifth grade, I had to try to start again from scratch, with very limited success.

Needless to say, it was a highly stressful sort of existence, even if I wasn't quite sure why I was so unhappy and stressed. I'd come home from school most days and go straight to my room to play with dolls. I liked reading, so sometimes I'd make the dolls characters from different stories we had read at school, or they'd become characters from different shows that I liked. As I got older, the stories became more of my own creation than just simple re-enactments. I'd try working through some of the things that were bugging me at the time. I started making clothes for my dolls, and furniture, and then even changing up their looks, as much as you could with a Barbie doll at any rate. As I started becoming a teenager and the separation between myself and my classmates became unbridgeable--I was too weird and was being forced too hard into focusing on academics by my parents, my dolls and their universe became a safe place for me to go after school.

I eventually went to college to study theatre arts, and I still didn't make friends. But my skill set for costuming and set-building improved, and I spent a lot of my spare time writing, like I had in high school. I kept trying to make my dolls match my visions for the people in my stories, but it was hard to do with small dolls.

BJDs were like a bolt of lightning for me. These were the dolls that I had been waiting for my entire life--very big, poseable, with completely changeable looks, with some of the porcelain doll charm that I loved. I was at a point in my life where I was feeling exceedingly isolated--my then-husband was gone a lot because of his job, I was a mom to a very young and very difficult toddler, and I was very far from home. My husband was very supportive of my doll hobby, especially since I was very "low maintenance" in my tastes and he had expensive hobbies of his own. And so it began, and I joined DoA and never looked back.

Funny though, I started making friends *through* the hobby. I was able to interact online without making people uncomfortable with my staring or refusing eye-contact or being wiggly or not conversing in a conventional fashion. And then my brother started getting dolls, and then I made a very best friend, and through it all it was these remarkable dolls that we had in common.

So when I say my dolls are my "always there" friends, there are reasons. Some of my friends have dolls with the same sculpts as some of mine. Some of my dolls I've gotten as gifts from loved ones, because why not a doll instead of a piece of jewelry that I will not wear? Some dolls are siblings to my brother's dolls. One doll I bought from a friend, and then my best friend bought the exact same sort of doll except as a boy from another mutual friend, and so we made them twin siblings. Some of them have very happy associations connected to them, like going to New York. So many of my dolls have these connections to the world outside of my own head and to people I love and care about and who love me back even if I'm the weird kid with the dolls, that it's impossible for me to not feel like I have a room full of friends and happy memories. There are stories and memories and feelings associated with so many of them, not because they are very pretty dolls, but because of all the friendships that I have made in the hobby. The joy having the denizens of my pen and paper land finally have faces to put to names is just an added perk for me, and it sometimes makes the stories come easier when I can sit them next to my computer when I write.

So, maybe it's a hard thing to say if I feel like they have souls or being or whatnot, but I can't help but to feel that there's more to them than just resin and elastic when there's so much there. They keep me mentally connected to the friends in my life who, much like the stars, aren't always visible but are always there. It's a real joy to see them very first thing in the morning and they're the last thing I see when I turn out the light, and sometimes I know that we're going to have adventures on that day, even if it is just on paper. They are very nice company to have around, because they don't judge or care if I have a hard day and a meltdown, and they're still going to be there even if I say something strangely that isn't what i mean but it came out wrong.

Egads, what a novella. I'll stop now.

 

My BJDs are my healers, haha. They are pretty to look at but it's their sense of calmness and tranquility that I really like. Some of them are really gentle-looking. I am living alone at the moment, so to some extent they are my companions helping me feel at ease. The ones I brought with me are gentle-looking. Like I just need to grab and hold their hand for a while and look at them, I would feel I am at so much peace

 

My dolls play a big role in my life. Since I have depression, it is really hard for me to get motivated. Seeing incomplete dolls or doll money I need to make really helps me. They also push me creatively and create enjoyment. I love customizing dolls and making clothes, and even sculpting. These dolls mean so much to me, there is no way I would be the same person without them.

 

Dolls serve as a creative outlet for me and I see them entirely as inanimate objects. A good majority of my hobbies revolve around art, so dolls mainly come across as incredibly good-looking mannequins to me. I also like character dolls for my favorite characters that have little to no merchandise. I enjoy taking the artistic approach to creating a physical representation of a character. Last but not least, it is a form of art appreciation!

 

I’ve always had all these characters that’d I always draw. And I always wished they’d come to life. These characters that I made have always comforted me and made me feel less alone. So when I got my first doll is was amazing to see my character come to life and physically be there!

 

Sometimes they are a creative outlet for me, through stories or crafts. I also have fun shopping for them, and that relaxes me. Most of the time, though, they are just pretty things that sit on my shelves. I'm happy that they're here, they're mine, and I get to look at them and handle them. They're some of my favorite belongings.

 

I currently do not own any typical BJDs, but I own several monster high dolls. They make me forget my troubles. They are my shields when I need to be alone I just dress them up; they make me feel better. Absolutely I need them, that is why I am saving for a resin doll to make a bigger friend to have as a consultant.

 

BJDs for me are therapeutic in a way painting isn't. I'm really hard on myself with artwork and keep challenging my skills in regards to anatomy and perspective, which just leads to me being dissatisfied when the result isn't what I wanted. But I don't feel very accomplished when doing pretty portraits, either. Part of the problem too is that like many others here, I'm autistic, and to make up for my disability I've always felt like I had to be good at art because it's my "savant skill." So quite irrationally, I feel like a failure at age 21, still unable to paint like Vermeer.

Dolls make me happy because they're so versatile, multimedia is a good way to describe it. Learning new skills is so exciting! And for some, parts of my art skill translate-- faceups are just draftsmanship, styling is the same as color picking, photography has design elements to it.... It's still challenging to learn new things, but in some ways, my brain can take a rest. Most of the good work has been done by a sculptor, and my job is only to customize

 

The dolls are my safe place, I can go and sit with them or write more of their story, My dolls are my pride and joy and they give me so much confidence!