Did anyone get into doll collecting because they’re stuck at home a lot?

Oh yes definitely. I got into BJDs shortly after I developed a chronic illness and I have actually even made a few friends in the hobby who have my exact same condition! I think it’s a very good hobby for people who are stuck at home for whatever reason.

 

I did not start because of my illness, wich I did not know what it was when I started.
But the hobby has definitley helpted me a lot when I've been stuck at home. I don't think I would have been where I am today without it neither I would have so many friends as I do

 

I had a lot of downtime back when I was in school and not working so I started picking up hobbies to pass the time. This was one of them and I've kept up with it as much as I can even when working full time now. Now I wish I had more downtime since I have the money to spend, haha.

 

Same here! I have a chronic illness that keeps me mostly homebound, so having a go-at-your-own-pace hobby like sewing and crafting for dolls is very cathartic for me! I don't always have energy to work on things, so then I come on here and see everyone else's amazing work and it keeps me motivated until I do have a good day to do some work. Definitely helps me keep my spirits up, too.

 

Ive always had an interest in them but now that ive been sick or dealing with emotional stressful situations& toxic people in my life .The hobby has become a slice of happiness for me. Its that little bit of positive I have to look forward to , to kind of combat the other things. I'm always trying to find things that make me happy or motivate me and inspire me. So that I have better more positive things to focus on vs the negative.

 

Quite the opposite at first! I got my first boy to take on adventures with me, and he’s traveled a lot!

But now, I work very part time and am mostly a housewife, not many local people share my interests, so my dolls sometimes fill the more boring hours of my days. When I have no one to hang out with or nowhere to go (or I just need to not be spending money), I can go in my doll room and spend hours organizing, dressing, taking photos, sewing, crafting, planning. I think it’s an excellent hobby for anyone who doesn’t get out much for whatever reason. Even if you’re physically stuck at home, your imagination is endless and your dolls’ stories can take you anywhere!

 

I wouldn't say it was the primary reason why I started the hobby. I found the customization aspect of dolls very appealing. However, I do get sick quite often, so a lot of my hobbies are ones that I can do indoors and by myself. Even if I'm too sick to move around a lot, art appreciation doesn't take too much effort.

 

Yeah thats true. Id definitely like to pick up photography and travel with my dolls once my vintage campers done.

 

In a roundabout way when I got my chronic illness I was lucky that I can still work on reduced hours (with rest days) so I do get out to meet people but I also started to learn to crochet as I couldn't do the walking I once did. However end of last year my hands and fingers started to play up and I couldn't sit and crochet for too long hence I re-started collecting dolls with just BJDs as I have always wanted to. Its been fab as I joined here made friends and also made two new friends on face book that I chat to each day through messenger, My dolls are very precious to me and love to take photos and I am trying to make a box room for them so three hobbies in one

 

I had been dealing with some medical stuff this last year- so that did very much contribute to my looking into the hobby (I'm only about 3 months actively into it). One thing I really liked about all this was that I wanted to find an artistic/creative outlet that I could do at home, and it wasn't too big a jump to go from customizing toys (which I've done previously) to all the facets of doll collecting, and especially the idea of making a doll- which is what I hope to ultimately do. Collecting things isn't new to me either- and it's been amazing looking at all the dolls and such- which is why I now have two dolls in hand and three more on order...
My medical stuff is now hopefully resolved, so I'm back to work... so everything hobby-wise seems to have slowed down a bit. (This is also because I'm waiting for my dolls! Arghhhh!!!) I'm still hoping to move forward with my plans to sculpt a doll, especially when I need that artistic outlet to unwind after those tough days at work.

 

I always admired the hobby from afar, but was mostly into more social hobbies, such as Lolita fashion and cosplay. When I had to move to a new city, where I knew nobody, I decided to invest in a new hobby, something that I could enjoy on my own and not depend on a group of friends to have fun. I felt like it was the right time to jump into this hobby, wich I enjoyed alone for a couple years before making new friends on the brazilian and international community.

Today I feel more inclined to enjoy my dolls with my friends, but it still something I can do on my own when I'm in the mood for it. Also, the artistic possibilities we have with BJD are what I love the most. I can always do some face ups when I need to chill.

 

My circumstances were much different... but... sort-of?

I'm a telecommuting freelancer these days, but that wasn't always the case. "Back-in-the-day", I worked a regular office gig. In particular, I worked with a very social, very chatty and very close-knit group of geeks and journalists, who were in and out of each other's offices, interacting with each other almost constantly. When I made the switch from sharing space with the gang to working on my own from home (Our parent company sold the magazine to the Washington Post and they moved everyone else to the East coast. I stayed in Seattle-), it was kind-of a shock. I *thought* I'd like the peace and quiet for a change... 'Truth is, after about a month of that, I was lonely.

Around that same time, a friend who'd already been collecting for a few years showed me a new doll she'd gotten. I hadn't really been smitten by the style of the dolls she'd had previously... But Kaga? He was different. I liked him a lot. He was a CP/Delf El and she sent me the URL of the company she'd gotten him from. Which lead to me finding a sculpt called a Shiwoo.

The price made me hesitate. I had a few action figures and Little Apple dolls around, but I'd never even considered a toy that was THAT pricey. I showed them to FlyingCodeMonkey (FCM = Mr.Brightfires) and explained my reservations about hitting that "Buy" button... and his reply was "Click the button. I'm buying him for you for Christmas." His justification? I'd also mentioned missing my work crew to him and how isolated it felt being home alone all day instead of with the gang. He thought having a very cute and very human-like little guy perched on my desk might make it feel like I was at least a little less alone.

I have to say that, while Harumatsu and Tien Jen (My "one" doll turned into two right out of the box. The extra Dreaming head I'd ordered ended up looking nothing like the open-eyed one, so instead of the main-and-alternate I'd expected, I ended up with a pair of brothers! ) never completely made up for being all on my own, on the far side of the country from my crew, they actually did help. These days, when I'm working, I usually have one or another of the dolls sitting here. It's not always Harumatsu or Jen, but they're the ones who started it.

 

I also suffer chonic illness which means i'm mostly housebound (and bedridden on bad days). I used to do art every day and make plushies but I started to get severe pain issues so i've had to massively cut back on that. It was very frustrating to not be able to be creative so thought i'd try to get properly into the ABJD hobby. The main thing I enjoyed about the art & plushie making was creating characters so character creation aspect of BJDs was very appealing.
It's still a very slow hobby for me though as I have to limit how much I do so I don't set off the pain issues. But BJDs have the advantage that you can buy some of the bits so that cuts down on the amount of work. It also has different activities (modding, painting, sewing etc) so that can help prevent overdoing on one physical task.
The BJD hobby has helped me be more patient with projects, as I always want things done NOW. So learning to do just to a little bit here and there and not worrying about how long it's taken has helped me deal with the fact it takes me a long time to do a piece of art or make something nowadays.
I have also found that while I can get frustrated and impatient about finishing a doll, once the doll is finished I don't do a lot with it. I've realised that I'm more interested in having a project to work on. I spend a lot of time thinking about the projects which has helped with keeping my mind occupied during some very difficult days and nights.
So while I didn't get into BJDs directly due to chonic illness, it did and does play a big part.

 

Over the last three years my chronic illness has gotten so severe I can hardly leave the house, so I started collecting all different kinds of dolls. I love to repaint my dolls, and make things for them! I'm not well enough to see people very often either so it's nice to feel like I have a bit of company. I like to base my dolls off of fictional characters I really like, so they all have their own personalities. For years before getting ill I was really into cosplay (I still am! I just don't have the energy very often to get into costume and take photos) so it's nice to be able to work on that kind of stuff for my dolls. I liked dolls before getting ill, but I never invested much time in them - now I finally can!

 

It's so interesting, I never thought of it that way, but it does seem to be a factor a lot of people have in common! I don't have any physical illness, but I got much more deeply involved in the hobby when I became a stay-at-home mom. I know that's very different from a confining illness of course and I'm glad I get to be home with my kids, but I do find it very isolating and I have severe post-partum depression which makes it hard to be involved or interested in anything. In a lot of ways my dolls and the related crafting have been the only things I "enjoy" for the past couple of years. (not that I don't love my kids, but PPD makes love feel like sadness for me). I think in a way, creating characters and building little world's is the perfect way to escape when you feel trapped or lonely.
If I can't make friends, I'll MAKE friends!
Or else I'm super weird and need to stop sharing my creepy inner thoughts with strangers online hahaha.

 

Not really. But when I became a stay at home mom, if it wasn't for the hobby I wouldn't have adjusted well to being stuck at home. (I was a SAHM out of necessity rather than choice) I was used to going out quite frequently and having a local shopping malland a park in walking distance. So being holed up at home (I don't drive and there's nothing close by enough to walk to) was a struggle to adjust to. If I hadn't picked up sewing or faceups at that time I would have gone crazy.

 

yeah!
I'm typically sick at least one day a week and having smaller projects like a shirt for a doll makes me feel productive while also resting. My social life might also be a huge part as my best friend lives an hour away and my other friends live around that distance or longer too. next year both my brother and my best friend will leave school and start their last year of high school a different place than their usual schools. my brother will be leaving the country while my best friend is going to another side of the county. I would say this hobby connects me with people and I enjoy that while I would otherwise be alone most of the time. I don't just enjoy the dolls but this wonderful comunity.

 

Reading the above posts makes me a bit sad, it's a bit meaningless, but best wishes for everyone.

I don't have any illnesses, but I am fairly antisocial. I have a large collection of anime figures and dolls. I like seeing the happy faces, and being around human-shaped things kinda makes up a bit for not being around actual humans.

 

I used to be physically healthy, but in 2017 I came down with Severe ME/CFS, so dolls are one of the only hobbies I can still do a little of. On my good days when I can sit up for longer periods or stand and move around a bit, I can paint and blush them, and on more sedentary days I can sew or just lie in bed and look at them. I do feel sad to neglect my SDs this amount. I wish I was a little stronger so they'd be easier to play with but I'm a wet noodle, and they'll have to wait.

 

Reviving this thread! Particularly for those of us often at home due to illness or disability, how do you find BJDs as a hobby?
I was just saying elsewhere that I love how this is a hobby you can do without running around or being able to stand a lot. How when I go to a bjd con, the only difference between me and other hobbyists is that I use a wheelchair part time and take a lot of naps between panels or meetups. We're able to be pretty involved whenever we have the energy to just type a little on DoA or sit and sew things, or even just look at everyone else's dolly pics.

 

With the recent pandemic issues, I assume this hobby has been a godsend to many of us. Now that we have vaccines and things have opened up more, I look back on the lockdowns and realize how my enjoyment of this hobby really pulled me through those difficult times. While I fortunately don’t have any debilitating issues, I am nonetheless aging, and things are slowing down for me by choice. When I began collecting all those years ago, I always had in the back of my mind that this would be a lovely hobby when things in life began to slow down, and boy! It certainly has been. It allows me to remain creatively and intellectually active, social and happy no matter how much time I choose to spend at home these days.

 

I think the pandemic has had a major role in my collecting. I've been bored and anxious and life has been so limited. I needed a new hobby, something I could do alone at home.

 

Yes. I got interested in dolls again during a rough time in my life a few years back. But it's taken me this long to actually place an order for a bjd. I still struggle with mental health issues, and going places and having a social life is basically impossible due to the age and activity level of my children. So here we are

 

I've been interested in owning a BJD for years now, but have always pushed the thought aside until the pandemic happened. So I started the hobby alongside my other hobbies.

 

Oh, that's an interesting thing to think about... I think it totally makes sense that this hobby would appeal more to people who are housebound or homebodies. I've always been someone who feels more comfortable at home due to anxiety and some health/pain issues, so finding a hobby that I can do at home just made more sense.

 

Yeah, pretty much what happened to me!

 

I've had a interest in BJD since I was in high school, but sadly I couldn't afford them for the life of me so I went for to collect Monster high dolls instead. I managed to finally get my BJDs in 2019 when I started working fulltime. I bought 3 dolls in a span of 1 month

 

I’ve been wanting a BJD for a few years now. I didn’t get into the hobby because of how homebound I’ve become, but I have notice how much being in the hobby helps.

I have more of a desire to brave the outside world cause my town is an amazing place to take pics. If I’m feeling no touchy, I still can hold my doll without feeling overwhelmed. Since I sadly can’t always keep my husband by me 24/7 for cuddles, I can grab my doll and feel okayish.

Then there is the social aspects I find here on DoA and the creative avenues this hobby opens up.

I’m pretty happy to find a hobby like this

 

It has definitely contributed to it.

I have a special needs child at home that requires full time supervision. The dolls give me something to do, that I can walk away from immediately when necessary. It doesn't matter what I'm doing with the dolls, sewing, photographing, faceups, whatever. It's easy to set a doll down and take care of important things around the house.

I'm not able to go to meet ups or conventions, because my child wouldn't be able to handle those things. I do enjoy looking at other peoples videos and pictures of these things. Because of my dolls, I still feel very connected to the hobby.

There is a lot of things that I can do from home that keeps me active and social despite not being able to physically join in on the fun by bringing my dolls places and meeting with other doll owners. Being active in social places like DoA and Instagram allows me to be social from home.

While I like video games as well, they are not always as easy to just drop and take care of things. Being in the BJD hobby is good for me because whatever commitment is involved is solely up to me, and the time that I can find to spend on it.

 

Reading everyone's responses made me feel very seen =) I have a severe auto-immune disorder and don't spend a lot of time outside as a result. While I was also interested in BJDs simply because I love their designs, they've made me feel like I have a hobby I can enjoy without overexerting my health, that isn't something like staring at a screen all day. It's also renewed my interest in learning sewing as well, which is a bonus ^^

 

I didn't get into the hobby because I had to stay at home a lot, but now that I'm crippled and DO have to stay at home a lot I'm glad I've got a hobby. My dolls have kept me from losing my mind more than once.