Dolls with disabilities?

I have a doll who's deaf, she has jointed hands so she can sign.
I love the idea of a little service dog buddy though! cute.

 

This is such a great idea to honor your own disabilities! I don’t have a doll at the moment that has a disability, but I think that diversity of dolls is beautiful!

 

One of my girls has Sickle Cell Anemia (so I think that counts, right?) and her son has Down’s Syndrome I love having crew members with such ’quirks’.

Edit - allow me to rephase my last sentance - I enjoy having dolls who have such traits, as inclusivity and representation is important to me.

 

It's great you have disabled dolls, but just so you know, describing disabilities as "quirks" can be seen as offensive, as it refers to something strange, or unusual, and referring to disabled people in this way is harmful.

 

My apolagies, I didnt mean any offense, as a person with a disability myself I see where you are coming from, and have added an edit to my post

 

Thank you!

 

Quite a few of my dolls' characters have schizophrenia or a psychotic spectrum disorder, just like myself! I like to create the positive representation I wish to see in the world, even if it's just something small for myself and my family and friends to know about.

My next full SD-sized doll I have plans to make an amputee character too, and have been looking into how people do that for their dolls!

 

Yup, I have OCs that have disabilities and i've made some of those characters into dolls. I have one character who has an undiagnosed stomach disorder, one who is mute and communicates through sign language and two who wear eye patches. I'm also currently making a fan doll of a character from a cartoon show who doesn't speak and communicates through body language.

I often have to wear an eye patch due to migraine/light sensitivity issues with one of my eyes so i've developed a soft spot for eye patch wearing characters. I also struggle with selective mutism so i've found i've become quite drawn to characters who communicate through non-verbal methods. I've found it has a kind of comfort and an empowering element to have characters with those particular things.

On the other hand, I am a long term sufferer of chronic illness and pain and to be honest, that's not something I want to think about when i'm having some escapism with my dolls. So it's quite selective for me, that some disabilities I feel positive about giving to a character and some things that would feel bit of a downer.

 

I'm hearing impaired, and the jointed hands for sign language is suuuch a charming idea! One of my non-BJD dolls is a deaf fashion model (with vitiligo), who I'm one day planning to shell onto a Minifee. I always grew disheartened as a kid never hearing about anyone on TV who had hearing problems like me, so I suppose the first doll I ever got ended up fulfilling that role in my life!

 

I like to give my OCs at least something to humanize them. Most of the time it's something not physical (like one of my characters has anxiety and anger issues) but I myself am physically disabled. If I can ever find a SD scale hand crutches, I do have a character in mind for them. :>

 

One of my dolls has a permanent injury hindering full use of her left arm (movement from the elbow and clenching the hand tightly cause her pain). The doll body she uses thankfully has some (workable) shoulder joints. So when posing her, I try to transfer the bulk of her arm movements to her shoulder and upper torso, as she would have in real life.

An upcoming one has a lost eye. I was able to find a sculpt with one eye closed (not winking), but I'd have to implement further temp mods on him to make him look more true-to-character.

EDIT: I forgot about this, but my lone sprite-like mature tiny has alopecia. It's not obvious in the pic below because she has a black cloth draped over her scalp, though. Also, my fraternal twin dolls have a hair pigmentation condition that they inherited from their father (who is my primary male doll): hereditary poliosis. It doesn't really affect their over-all health, but they have naturally light streaks (level of severity varies from ash blonde to white depending on the character) on their hair due to lack of pigment. Still working on their individual wigs to be able to portray it accurately.

Spoiler: Sparse hair

Wisps of Black by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr

 

One of my dolls has an older style body with knee joints that don't let him stand, so I made a wheelchair for the little guy.

 

There's a photo reference gallery featuring dolls with all sorts of disabilities.

I too have dolls with various conditions, ranging from chronic illness, hidden disabilities and visible ones. Four of them are in my doll profiles, while a fifth has yet to make her formal debut.

 

While none of mine have visible physical disabilities, I do have a few who share some of my own illnesses. Marley is bipolar, borderline schizophrenic and suffers from depression. Cooper has severe anxiety and an eating disorder. Lily has dealt with addiction. Cooper and Marley have asthma. Jesse has depression and anxiety. Sixx has severe allergies (not sure if these qualify or not).

 

One of my children is mute and uses sign language (and her power to create images in the air (because magic (the world needs more of it))) to communicate with her family.

 

I've wanted to make spoonie related things for my dolls, but I couldn't really come up with any ideas for things to make other than mini pill bottles and syringes. I have an invisible illness, and it's hard to represent something invisible in a physical way on a doll. I'd really like some doll scale sunglasses that look like mine, but I haven't found anything remotely similar. I agree @Epicari. There are aspects of my illness that I don't mind talking about or giving a doll while others I try not to think about.

 

My girl has SPD (sensory processing disorder) , I find it comforting to have characters that I can relate to

 

I have some dolls in my crew that have disabilities and the like, as does my S.O. in their's.
My significant other and I have dolls that are loosely based on our selves. As such my boy/girl Velocity has mild depression high anxiety and dysgraphia, and Amber's boy Legacy has diabetes and dysgraphia.

I also have a dolls based on role playing PCs of mine that have physical disabilities. Alice has a glass eye (his right one is blue and his good eye, the left one is red with a heart shaped pupil and the glass one.) and Darek is a D&D rogue of mine that had his right hand cut off and has a clockwork replacement but it lacks a lot of feeling the real one had. (Doll has a modded jointed hand.)

 

I learned in my late teens I had dysgraphia, thank god as it was a struggle writing and not understanding why made it worse. I was home schooled and really smart otherwise but spelling and writing were just the hardest thing even though reading was easy. I'm so glad to have learn why as made it easier to deal with.

Velocity and Legacy as characters are these kind of super villain OCs loosely based on us from an art/comic-book parody club we were in. We shelled them as dolls cuz my love's art is photography. When we worked how much of ourselves to put into them we made up minds to put in at least one or two of our own flaws for realism. (As well as other traits like Vel as a reflection of me is bi-gendered, and under a lair of being lippy is really a bleeding heart.)

I also get leaving some traits or issues you have out of dolls as well. It's play and should be a way to have fun, not make an issue worse. If Vel having depression dragged me down too much, I'd scrap that part of the character so as not to hurt my own mental health.

 

I have always wanted to have a doll that uses a wheelchair, for my OC, but I have never been able to make it. I have tried to plan a SD sized wheelchair several times, but have not managed to come up with anything that would support her weight and look good. All the existing chairs have been made for very wide dolls like American Girl, and I want my doll to have something comfortable that looks like she uses the chair in everyday life. So a wide seat, heavy looking frame and folding leg supporters are not what I would want ideally. I am also super bad at crafting or planning anything mechanical, I just don't have that kind of intelligence. I really hope I could shell her some day despite all the trouble. If I could just get a blueprint for the parts, my father owns equipment he uses to make parts for sports car engines and can make pretty much any metal parts, with a little more cost of course, but then I would have a Mercedes class wheelchair!

 

One of my characters is blind in one eye and has extensive scarring on the left side of his body and face, but he is usually hiding it. I'm planning to buy a second head for him which really will have scars and a blind eye.

Another one should have a mechanical, prosthetic right arm, but so far I didn't find any which would suit my idea. The irony is, his fullest actually had mechanical, steampunk arm -- very similar to what I envisioned. But when I bought him, all fullsets were already gone. I'll either manage to find a similar hand in future or (more likely) paint the prosthetic arm ower his ordinary arm. It's easier than moding it.

I'm planning to shell a character who has PTSD. I don't have PTSD but I'm hypervigilant -- this probably influenced me in these regards. My second planed doll keeps on forgetting to eat and is a workaholic. I don't think it's actually an impairment at all, but it definitely isn't entirely natural state of things. This is also a problem I have, my weight fluctuates really a lot due to this.

 

@vauhtikatti Myfroggystuff has a couple of videos for DIY wheelchairs, custom fitted for the doll's size: and

As for spoonie props @Cinnamon Crystal, perhaps a cup or bottle of water or a smoothie for when cooking is too much? Pillows or some kind of portable seat would also be cool.

 

I have one doll who needs a wheel chair, though I’m yet to find an SD size wooden one

 

None of my dolls really have characters, but I have plans for my Volks F05 to kind of embody my personal issues. I am a chronic migraine sufferer thanks to a brain condition called Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. Fortunately, I'm in a bit of remission, but I want to pay tribute to that difficult time in my life and how I pushed through the pain to accomplish my goals.

 

@saraquill Thanks, I have seen those, but I do not think that a chair made of paper or plastic bars and CDs is going to last very long on a heavy doll sitting on it all the time, plus they are not that realistic to me. I think sourcing folding metal bars or some welding machinery would be the best - and pretty hard - way to make a modern "sporty" chair that could actually be used, like bringing it outside and travelling with it, and that has functioning wheels (just one of my fixations, it is not even going to show on photos so I don't know why it matters to me so much). I have seen someone once using old stroller wheels as bases for wheels, and I think that would be very useful. There the wheels would only need some thinner metal hoops attached to them, so that the chair can be "wheeled". I once saw metal hoops for sale for making dreamcatchers, they have various sizes and colours and would be ideal for the purpose.

 

The doll in my avatar has his arm amputated at about mid forearm.

 

I've been meaning to get one of my dolls a wheelchair in remembrance of a girl I used to know who had difficulty walking more than short distances, like across a room. The doll also has a fantasy head that makes her unable to stand unaided. She's an odd size, about 20cm tall and slim, so finding a wheelchair her size is difficult. Another one of my dolls' characters is deaf, having lost his hearing as a child. I have hearing loss, from childhood too, though its not as significant as his. I also have a doll who has PTSD. I should make him a dog so he has a service dog or emotional support animal.

 

@saraquill those are good ideas. Some cute water bottles would be nice.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned 3D printing to make a wheel chair. I'm not an expert at it, but I assume that using the right kind of filament and making the pieces thick enough could make a nice, sturdy wheel chair. There are free 3D models out there. There might be one of a wheel chair, and I don't think it would be too hard to model one if necessary. There are companies that will print the pieces for you as well. My other thought in making wheel chairs was metal casting. I know very little about it, but I think it would make a really sturdy chair.

 

This might be a bit random, but amongst my doll making plans, I want to make one that doesn't reflect my (invisible) disabilities literally, but metaphorically. I want to create a doll and use either gold paint or something else to make it look like kintsugi. Just because that's more a reflection of how I feel, than a literal representation.

(I hope that isn't offensive to anyone. It's mostly to do with PTSD, and my own feelings about myself, because everything becomes fragmented. Between the present and the past, there are bits of me all over the place. It's not to imply that disability makes you broken, 'cos it doesn't. It's human.)

 

My favorite doll mirrors my mental illness and physical disability, in a way it’s made me bond with her more.

I was injured years ago and have permanent nerve damage. My doll Mia can’t stand for very long either but I changed her cause to something fantasy based. She’s a lab creation, a human fused with an owl’s DNA, so she has brittle bird bones that can’t support a human body. She has levitation magic(can I get some of that?) but when her magic runs low she can’t walk anymore. I’m eventually getting her a wheelchair.

She mirrors my diagnosed mental illness but again it’s not an exact copy of my own. Mia has severe sensory issues, panic attacks and trouble with speech. She finds it easier to talk to her cat or to young children than other adults. As a result it’s made her reclusive but she can warm up to the right person.

Mia’s best friend(incoming) is a kind and compassionate boy she’s known since they were children, who knows how to talk to her and make her feel safe.

 

My Simply Meant to Be Dohwee has a wheelchair waiting for him when he finally arrives. I'm a part time wheelchair user myself and I'm excited to decorate his chair :-)

 

One of my characters has a magically caused version of something I have. She gets migraine-like headaches, but she gets it from this very dangerous, very illegal magical substance her father decided was completely appropriate to be putting in his child to enhance her abilities. If she overused her powers, she gets absolutely splitting migraines.

On top of that, she can’t fly, which is considered a disability in one of the worlds she’s lived in, and less so in the other. She Hates it when people try to carry her too. She will walk, or she will climb, or she will find a way to get there, but don’t pick her up unless she’s got a migraine or she’s too injured to move herself. For mobility aids for that, she’s learned minor amounts of levitation magic and such, and probably has a service dragon, or the like for long-haul trips she can’t walk on.

 

Suddenly wishing that service dragons were a thing in real life O_O it would be so cool! XD

 

Ari has Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (albinism and associated vision problems, bleeding disorder, lung issues...) and Ilari has PTSD and very poor mental health in general due to years of solitary confinement.

 

Arkady (FL Minifee Mir/ka) has pretty severe PTSD after a life as a professional soldier, and he is dyslexic, though in his world they don't have a name for it, he just hasn't ever been able to really master reading and writing, and that's why.

Amadi (Simply Divine Harlequin) has selective mutism and is probably autistic, though again, fantasy setting and they don't have words for that except Unusual and Quiet and very Studious in his case. He carries a wax tablet around so he can write to people when he's nonverbal. I need to get him some jewelry to stim with.

Kevya (Iplehouse Barron mod) has definitely got Sensory Perception differences and he has PTSD after some awful stuff.

 

I just love the idea of her dropping that into a casual conversation in uni, like “yeah, if we’re planning to fly, let me know, my service dragon will have to realm-hop to get here.” And who ever she’s talking to being baffled. Dragon bonding is a huge thing in-universe, so her getting a dragon would be wildly significant. Her realm hasn’t ever had dragons, so the dragon-bond is something she comes by in another.

ngl I wouldn’t have minded one when I had like a year where a skating injury made walking really painful for my knee. I just thought it was an answer to how fantasy settings could address mobility aids in a way that vibes with the setting, and I absolutely love the idea of her bonding with one.

 

My Roux (Elfdoll Vivien) has a arm crutch (custom production from a local artist). Long story... She was a circus performer.

Green Chartreuse - The Secret Garden VIII by Arengil Tajedinápravá, on Flickr

 

A lot of my characters tend to be on the autism spectrum... mostly because I am, so it's easier for me to think and write from that perspective even if the characters present in very different ways. So among my dolls, Billy and Marigold are both Autistic (it's just a coincidence that they happen to also be the two short redheads... also like me).

Vince's character isn't disabled, but I did think it was kind of cute in a weird way when I discovered that he and I have the same 'bad hip'-- he's just strung a little bit imperfectly so one of his hips doesn't want to stay in place, since I haven't restrung him in an age. Technically both of my hips are bad, as is my lower back, but I tend to go out more on one side than the other and I liked that he seemed sympathetic to it? Since he's the Comfort Doll of the crew.

Pete has more severe vision impairment (and photophobia) than I do, but he rarely wears his glasses, which are very slightly tinted for said photophobia. (actually, as I take my glasses off to clean them, I realize we probably have similar levels of blur, but he's more light sensitive in addition-- because I've been a glasses-wearer for so long, the last time I was talking about disabilities among my dolls I didn't even THINK about vision impairment)

 

My doll is supposed to be a schizophrenic boy so kinda like me. We can relate to each other

 

I never realized BJDs could be such a great way for differently-abled people to express themselves. How wonderful! Having a doll friend that has the same experiences as you must be nice.
More on the side of physical disabilities, but wouldn't it be cool if more dolls came with them? Perhaps a limb fitted with a prosthetic? I never thought about it before, but after reading this thread I think I'll sculpt some option parts for the doll I'm working on. I was already planning on doing ballet feet, flat feet, and heel feet, so whats a few more pieces?
Thanks for broadening my horizons by talking about your dolls!!

 

Aww, that's so sweet of your husband! Some people don't "get" dolls, but I feel like this thread shows how useful they can be! Everyone's responses were cool to read. I feel more educated now

I'd never seen that Aimerai doll before, he's so cool! Why didn't I know about him when I wanted a steampunk boy He would have been perfect! Seeing him really inspires me to do something like that too. With so many new sculptors getting into making dolls, more of us should try to represent different kinds of bodies!

 

This is such a great idea... Jointed hands are something I just found out about. I love the idea of using them for sign language...

 

I have dolls with several of the disabilities already mentioned in this thread, but I don't think parathesia has been brought up, and it's something that my first SD and I both share. Whenever my hands and feet are tingling/burning/freezing real bad I can put myself in the mind of my character and know he feels the same way, which I find helpful.

 

At the moment no. My first and only (for now huehuehueuhe) doll is a macho elf from Raccoon doll and I will confess I hadn't given this any thought until this thread. Thank you everyone for sharing and @Manic Mushroom for creating this very cool thread about representation and comfort and more.

As another spoonie/disabled human I take comfort in the fact that he (Caedan) could have all the spoons in the world instead of me.

 

This thread makes me so happy! I love seeing the incredible diversity of dolls that reflects the real world. My first legit doll (who sadly isn't with me yet) is going to be a character I've been working on for a while; a deaf and selectively mute girl with ADHD who attends a prestigious arts school and writes poetry. I myself have ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and I often end up making characters for dolls that include one or more aspects of that, but I also like to branch out to include other disabilities that I want to see more representation of in fiction (with proper research done on anything I'm not familiar with of course). I love reading about all the amazing disabled dolls others have and the stories behind them!

 

Yes! I don't have a physical disability, but I have SZPD, which I have never seen represented in any form of media ever (and probably never will), and OCD, so making my dolls have similar struggles is kind of a comfort thing and representation, even if it's just my characters, is very important too.

 

I am going to be making my feeple.named Andi a cane soon. I'm supposed to get one but I've been stubborn and just limp around. I'm mostly unsure how to use one properly. But since she is supposed to have my conditions, I want her to do the right thing lol

 

@Doll-Mage He is so cute! I love his wheelchair!

My newest doll, Tommy has a little bit of a learning disability if that counts! A few of my other dolls have mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, ptsd. I haven't given any of my dolls physical disabilities, but I am interested in creating a character with some kind of physical disability one day!

 

I loved reading this thread! It's so inspiring to see people using their dolls as this kind of expression.

I guess I do by proxy? Most of the characters I write though have so called "invisible" illnesses, as my son and I both do, and many of those characters I've been shelling into doll form. I don't really do photo stories or the like though, so it's mostly that they're a tangible representation of a character with disabilities, if that makes sense.

In particular though is the little Pongpong I did up in my son's likeness My son has childhood apraxia of speech and can't talk (he's just started speech therapy and is already making huge strides!) but despite the frustration he gets sometimes with us not understanding what he's trying to express, he's such a happy, vibrant little boy. The moment I saw that giant Pongpong smile I just thought that's my baby! and knew exactly what I'd do if I ever got my hands on one Now I've got my little smiley boy in doll form in my home office.

 

I have a few, a mix of moderately visible and invisible types.

Gabriel has a chronic illness that leads to fatigue, nausea, pain, and sleeplessness due to night terrors.
Maren has oculocutaneous albinism, with visible implants that help correct his vision.
(I also have another character on the shortlist to be ordered who has ocular albinism; due to a reduced gene pool, recessive traits such as albinism have become somewhat more common than the human average among Gabriel and Maren's kind.)
Prae is blind; her blindness is magically induced, so it's visible in her eyes being whited out.
Luc is selectively mute.
Edward has a prosthetic arm and leg (mods in progress).
Jace is lucky and is only missing one toe.
Edmund has a prosthetic arm, too, which will be done when I finally decide how I want it to look.

 

My dolls are all designed to represent characters from my creative work (mainly screenplays), which is how I process a lot of my own emotional pain. This manifests itself in both mental health issues as well as physical injury.

Taylor is the most flexible; based off one of my creative muses—a woman I greatly respect and admire—she takes on many roles depending on what I'm working on. Her body is blushed with numerous cuts, bruises, scrapes, etc. from her previous time as Scarlet, a severely depressed, anxiety-ridden pop idol traumatized from years of abuse, and trapped within an existential crisis. Though I consider this story finished, and her head is currently away for a long-deserved makeover, I never had the heart to have her reblushed; she may not be able to feel pain, but that sense of metaphorical agony is so important to my connection with her as a companion doll.

Next in line would be Carina, a street performer and aspiring actress left aphonic after her vocal cords were damaged in a car crash. This is why there's a jagged scar painted across her neck. I've always felt like I've never really had a voice; that my work and dreams never matter to anyone. After Taylor, she is probably the closest to my heart.

Faye is a makeup artist that murders models, and turns them into perfectly preserved dolls, an addictive behavior born from a mixture of childhood trauma, and the loss of her beloved to terminal illness; a high IQ, obsessive-compulsive individual that, instead of being a textbook sociopath, finds herself crushed under the weight of intense remorse instead. She... ended up being way more relatable than you might think. Her severe isolation, emotional unfulfillment, the inability to let go of past mistakes, OCD, and negative coping mechanisms all hit extremely close to home. To this date, I've never finished her story... it goes to some very dark places, and seeing Faye—someone that, deep down, is a beautiful, loving soul crying out for help—so undeservedly tortured, upsets me so much.

Even though it was years before I was finally able to have her, Foxglove might have been the first doll I conceptualized in this manner; an ageless woodland witch turned agoraphobic misanthrope after her lover was tortured and killed for practicing magick centuries prior. I don't think I realized it at the time how much of a reflection this was of my severe anxiety and deep-seated trust issues. Her crippling loneliness, much like mine, is something I wish no one ever had to feel.

... sorry if this was all TMI. I just didn't really know how better to explain my little band of misfits better.

 

I have a lot of OC's that have "issues" either physically or mentally. I think the reason for this is because I find mental illness extremely interesting, as someone who has struggled with mental illness. The same for physical difficulties, I want to know more about them and become more educated with them. I worry a lot about inaccurately portraying these with my characters though, I want to ensure that I don't misrepresent or accidentally stereotype anyone's struggles.

 

Since one of mine won't stand, I got her a wheelchair. I decided she is a post polio and has mobility problems and
another wears an insulin pump.