NEWS - REBORN DOLLS FIND A LIFE OF THEIR OWN

Reborn dolls find a life of their own

 

by Alina Lobzina at 25/01/2012 19:10

More and more Russian women are becoming “mommies” of babies made of vinyl, as reborn dolls gain popularity across the country.
Ladies are discussing their fake little ones or their plans to purchase an artificial bundle of joy online, paying occasional off-line visits to other members of their closed community.
“I had been considering several options, but Lenochka looked at me in such a way that I just couldn’t walk past,” a “mommy” posted in a message on one of the numerous discussion boards. “One picture stole my heart, she looks so sad in it that I really want to cuddle her,” read the message containing about 20 pictures of Lenochka in various outfits.

20,000+ rubles a doll
For some, however, this passion for shockingly realistic dolls has become a nice business. Yekatrina Samgina, the mother of three children herself, became a reborn dolls artists after her youngest baby was born.
“Then I was bursting with emotions and wanted to create this doll myself and I’ve enjoyed paining since I was a child,” she told RIA Novosti.
Samgina’s works cost about 20,000 rubles each, if not more, and for two-and-a-half years she has produced several dozen of them.
“I’ve got no clients without children, or any crazed people,” she said. “It’s not a weird mania of women who have no children.”
Sometimes she is asked to make a doll to look like a client’s real child, so parents could demonstrate it to their offspring later. “It’s like a photo, but in 3D.”

US trend arrives in Russia
The trend first emerged in the US in the 90s, and the first reborn dolls reached Russia in mid 2000s. Not many reborn doll owners will confess it’s more than a hobby. “So many people say bad things about us and believe we are mad. But we just like dolls,” a themed discussion board member wrote in an email to Komsomolskaya Pravda, rejecting to meet a reporter.
Another reborn doll artist, Tatyana Tsorn, also thinks that things are not as bad as they seem.
“Most people buy dolls to decorate their homes,” Tsorn told KP. Extremes, however, also happen, she admitted. “Recently a woman was asking on a discussion board where she could get a mechanism so her doll’s heart would beat and she could hear it breathe.”

Something like a lap dog
Psychologists agree that not every reborn doll owner needs some help from a specialist.
In general, it’s similar to some people’s obsession with lap dogs, believes psychologist Anetta Orlova.
“For some women it’s a substitute for their own children,” Orlova told KP. It could be a good remedy for those mothers whose desire to nurse children remains long after their own children have grown up, she added.
“But there is also the third type… They have just lost the boarder between their fantasy and reality,” Orlova said. And for many, playing with a vinyl baby seems to be a more favorable option than adopting one from Russia’s numerous orphanages, according to her.