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August 27, 2026

my day + doll talk

Today I woke up around 6pm, for most of the day I binged The Golden Girls, updated all pages on my lurk, scrolled on Pinterest, and talked to my friend. I didn't do much else, the rest of my day was quite boring. Today I ate pizza & pretzels, and drank lots of water (as if that balances it out). Tomorrow I want to eat a little better, though there's not many options. Yesterday I only ate junk. I need to study tomorrow, I haven't in a few days. I may also paint tomorrow if I have time. I started painting a new doll kit (Realborn Kelsey) three days ago, I haven't picked her up since, she's just been sitting on my desk. I was so excited to paint her, then suddenly after starting her I've lost interest. I feel that way about lots of things lately, I'm glad I was more active today even if it was just online.

I really want to start a mini Madame Alexander collection, I currently have seven of their larger dolls and one (technically two, one on the way) of their 13 inch dolls, I'd like to have more of their 13 and 8 inch dolls (from the 1960s-1980s). The reason I'm thinking of this again is because my friend's mom showed me her doll collection and offered me one of her Madame Alexander dolls, I felt bad for accepting but decided to think of it as a birthday present. I enjoyed researching the Madame Alexander afterwards, I love their dolls. Nowadays dolls are so cheaply made, Mattel has went from printed on panties, to printed on shirts as well. Madame Alexander dolls (8-13inch) come with real cloth panties, along with very quality clothing and accessories. Some even came with extra clothing, lingerie sets, trucks filled with clothing, or many accessories.

Madame Alexanders dolls mostly have realistic body types as well, no insanely small waists or tiny high heel feet. They also hold up well, 8/9 in my collection are in near perfect condition at over 40 to 60 years old. I'd assume them being higher end dolls plays a part in this, but even modern high end dolls are not this nice. I just looked at the Madame Alexander website, they still sell 8 inch dolls, they look decent, but not $180 decent. They've noticeably declined in quality since the 1990s. They currently sell 8 and 10 inch collectible dolls, and baby dolls ranging from 12-18 inches. I decided to look up modern high end (children's) doll brands, the most recommended were Corolle, Gotz, American Girl, Minikane, and Madame Alexander. After looking at all of them, I'm assuming they each pay for good ratings, minus American Girl & Madame Alexander.

Each doll from Corolle, Gotz, and Minikane look like low end walmart dolls with a $60-$200 Price tag. As much as I despise American Girl, they're the clear winner here. Madame Alexander is a close second, their baby dolls are well worth their prices, their "collectible" dolls aren't (in my opinion). Anytime I see someones modern American Girl collection, they look very nice quality. As do the older dolls. I would consider Madame Alexander's 12 inch dolls & Bitty Baby dolls by American Girl for a child of ages two to six. For a child of ages seven to eleven, I would consider Madame Alexander's 13-18 inch dolls along with any other American Girl dolls. For lower end dolls, I like JC Toys, they have a wide variety of dolls, ranging from $15-$70 for all age groups. I personally own two of their dolls, I bought them ten years ago. Their newer dolls look just as high of quality. I do not like that their dolls are now called Reborns, but what can I do about that? I guess it will be easier to push parents onto those instead of real Reborns now. After looking at the JC Toys website, I almost like them more than AG & ADC.

I've given myself a whole new level of baby fever, I want to buy baby dolls for my (non-existing) children. My baby fever has already been at its peak for the past few weeks, I've been making name lists, stalking Reborns.com, along with making nursery & baby clothing boards on Pinterest. This is somewhat new to me, Most of the time I don't really want children. I bought a new reborn for the first time since starting Reborning (over two years) a few weeks ago because of my baby fever. I named her Colette, I may add a photo. She's a very sweet girl, I love her kit (Tessa by Bountiful Baby). She has the prettiest painted hair, rooted lashes, & she's six lbs, my heaviest doll yet. I've loved dressing her up, I plan on buying her new clothing soon. I do not really role-play with my Reborns, I only ever dress them up and hold them every once in a while. I find some of the role-plays people do a tad weird.

I rarely take my dolls out either, I'm afraid of someone thinking they're real and asking me questions. How do you tell a stranger you're carrying around a doll opposed to a real baby? It just seems scary to me. Some people get angry when told they're wrong, I would not like to be in that situation. Or what if I just go along with what they say then they catch it and call me out on lying? Not worth the stress in my opinion. I'm also just an anxious person, I've taken my dolls out when I was younger and rarely gotten any comments, but those dolls were much less realistic. I think I will reserve my dolls for posting online until I'm ready for that. I know there are spaces for Reborn collectors to speak about these things and comfort each other, and I have been in those spaces and read their stories, but I can never bring myself to comment or post there. I've been writing for hours yet I still have so much more to say. I never really care if anyone reads my whole Blog, or reads any of it at all, I just like writing it.

I wish I could find other doll collectors like me, every time I enter doll spaces (Reborn or others) I feel so out of place. No one my age collects the baby dolls I collect, and Reborn collectors seem to be much different than me. I feel weird trying to befriend the older baby doll collectors, along with any Reborn collectors. I have many mutuals on my Reborn nursery Instagram, but none have reached out to be friends and I'm not sure they'd want me to. I need to start posting more on both my Nursery account & my main account, I never post anywhere. I'd really like to make new online friends, I haven't since 2021. I used to have many different friends, all in different communities & with different interests. I've gotten too comfortable with only talking to two people. I think it's a bit harder to make friends at my age and in the state everyone is in lately. In 2020-2021 all you had to do was comment on someones post or add them on quick add then you were automatically best friends, or at least that's how it was for me. it probably helped that I was like 13. Now everyone seems to stick to their older friends, isn't interested in friends, or will add you, text you twice, then ghost you. I can't really judge the ghosting thing, I do the same if the person seems uninterested.





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