The Reborn World; a playful community united by real emotion. Vinyl and silicone dolls that are painstakingly hand crafted by Reborn artists, specifically unique one-of-a-kind baby dolls designed to be indistinguishable from a real child. For what many consider as child play, and only for little girls, the Reborn World invites anybody who wants to join in the fantasy play, blurring the line between innocent fascination and adult gratification.
Whatever the purpose for this pricey and addictive obsession, with the dolls costing anything from a couple of hundreds of pound to thousands, the dolls are created deliberately to evoke the same emotion and require the same love of a real newborn, and are always considered a worthy investment.
With additional accessories such as detachable hearts and umbilical cord clips these dolls attract attention whenever they are noticed, looking, weighing and even smelling like a real life baby. For market stall prices these ‘accessories’ add another deeper element to these lifeless dolls, questioning the intentions of the artists as well as their buyers with their attempts to imitate life and their never ending fixation with perfection.
However with the added extras that can be perceived as the ‘darker’ side to dolls, these women ultimately just want to mother these Reborns. For the untold reasons why they choose dolls rather than real children, the feeling they exercise when nursing their ‘baby’ is obvious, the happiness both exchanged and received is undeniable. This secret population of Reborn Mothers is slowly being exposed but only when the truly unique stories of these incredibly brave women are told, will it start to be accepted into society that continues to discriminate childless women.
Words and Images by Annabel May Oakley-Watson ©