Barbie Customizing- Project: Barbie-Me (barbie "nudity")

The Barbie movie got me, like many of us, looking back at the dolls available now compared to when we were kids in our various decades. The best part of that, IMO, is better proportions and diversity, and now Made to Move Barbie bodies. Part of why I didn't love them as a kid was their stiff legs and hooked arms stuck awkwardly out when you tried to make them do anything but stand. The Made to Move Barbies are everything I wanted as a kid, and now Barbie comes in colors besides Orange-Tan, and she can sit down. (this is important later)

I watch a lot of vinyl doll customizers on YouTube, and I wanted to see if i could do what they were doing. Most of them make a little self out of a doll at some point, a self-portrait in this medium, and I wanted to try.
See, I'm very, very pale, with an aquiline nose, dark brown hair, and blue eyes. Dolls *never* look like me. It was an alienating thing as a kid. No American Girl Just Like You, no off the shelf doll, no Disney Princess has ever looked like me, and I think a lot of other kids can relate.

Now that I can customize dolls, I decided to finally right that injustice and give my inner little girl that Barbie she deserved to have- one that actually poses and looks like her. Like me. I am a part time wheelchair user, so any doll that needs to be a self portrait needs her wheelchair so she's free to go anywhere she can roll, and participate in life more freely. Made To Move dolls can sit OR stand, and the new colors mean I can find a doll without a Hollywood Tan.



Then the perfect chance came up when a "Caspia" doll based on a mermaid series of dolls had a visibly raised nose bridge. Finally, a Barbie doll has a face I could paint to look like me, and she was pale!
I grabbed one that another dolly hobbyist had put onto a Made To Move body, and took the plunge.




I started by using heat to remove her head and then took off her nice pink hair. Sorry, dolly.


Then I got a rerooting tool and some hair, and began rooting her painted head with dark brown hair shot with some grey like mine is.


Here she is so far!

 

Thanks very much! I did see those barbies- unfortunately they only make the active sport type wheelchairs for people who can physically wheel themselves around. I will be using an older wheelchair type and converting it to the sort I use most, which is a powered chair I steer by myself. I'd love to see Mattel make those.

Thank you! Yeah my feelings on Barbie have always been complex, so I figured this is my way claim that space for myself.

Right? Me and my sisters would argue over who got to use the gymnast Barbie and Mulan doll because they were the only ones who could move. I think you should totally give your own self portrait doll a try, modifying a body to match your own if you like. I feel like making a self image you are proud of goes a long way to kind of reconciling and celebrating your own shapes and look. I'm finding it very satisfying. Thank you!

Thanks! My own hair has streaks of silver in it like that, and at first I was self conscious but now I love my silver and wouldn't trade it. Giving it to a doll feels right- she's just like me.