Inside The Disturbing World Of Doll Reader

By Margaret Hartmann | June 30, 2009 | 5:00pm

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We enjoyed playing with dolls when we were little, but no Barbie or Baby Alive could prepare us for Doll Reader, the magazine for adults who make, collect, and occasionally dismember ultra-realistic dolls.

The “Out And About” section is what we imagine Vogue would look like if it were written for three-year-olds. Apparently Corolle Dolls are a major status symbol among filthy rich preschoolers.

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Little girls love it when their dolls look like them, but what if you’re one of the magazine’s older readers? Doll Reader has you covered.

We missed the episode of Entertainment Tonight in which Mary Hart was presented with a doll modeled after a childhood picture of herself by Marie Osmond. Though Mary and Marie “giggled over the doll like two schoolgirls,” Mary immediately suggesting that they give the doll away to charity makes us think she wishes she missed that episode too.

In the feature “Heaven’s Light Nursery” we learn about doll maker Vikki Ebbeling. “My babies reflect who I am and what I am thinking at the time,” says Ebbeling. “As I work closely with my own Creator, I feel the culmination of his divine plan. I am making a statement as it is revealed to me in a very profound way: that life is considered to be a gift to us, and that a child is given to us as a perfect statement from the “Universal Creator” himself, to be of the purest for of love.”

“A face comes to me sometimes while I’m sleeping. I awaken with a face in mind, and that is how I begin sculpting a lot of times,” says Ebbeling. “At first, I found this to be odd, [and] I have asked my husband if he could see the face too! When he looked at me with a questioning look on his face I realized I must be projecting the face into the clay with my mind’s eye. I feel a divine connection as the face unfolds in the clay. It is not always a cute baby face, but nonetheless the image of a real child.”

In fact, some of the baby dolls are so realistic they come with the remnants of their umbilical cords intact.

In “A Reborning Rookie” a new editor tries to learn more about the trend in which, “artists remove the paint and hair from finished baby dolls and remake them to resemble realistic newborns.” The subtitle on this piece is “Looking to learn a little more about reborning, I turned on the oven and prepared to bake a baby.”

This “reborn” was sculpted to look like the artist when she was a preemie in the hospital.

Here’s a taste of Doll Reader‘s advertising. With the lollipop, poncho, and that face, this is what we imagine Jerri Blank would have looked like as a child. However, if this isn’t an homage to Strangers With Candy there is no reason for this doll to exist.

One of these things is not like the other! That’s right, if you can’t decide whether you want to channel your baby lust into an extremely lifelike doll or an actual monkey, a baby monkey doll is the perfect compromise.

Earlier: Primetime Exposes The Dangers Of Satisfying Baby Lust With Monkeys
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