A few years back, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the world’s largest broadcaster in terms of employees, ran a special documentary on the reborn doll hobby titled “My Fake Baby.” It’s a pretty clever title that holds true to these ultra-realistic dolls. The documentary aired back in 2007, but many people close to the hobby have been actively looking for it, which is why we’ve embedded a partial clip below. I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in learning more about reborns!
I’ll be honest, I was skeptical of whether or not My Fake Baby would be just another flick that criticizes doll collectors and artists. After all, that seems to be the trend with most of the news programs and talk shows covering the hobby. After sitting down and watching the full documentary, though, I was surprised at how non-biases it was. In fact, it even sheds some light on the benefits of owning reborn dolls.
Throughout the documentary, you’ll see both collectors and artists alike who are interested in the reborn doll hobby. There’s one woman who made the decision to collect reborn dolls after her young son passed away. She claims the dolls help her cope with the grieving process of losing her son. Of course, she’s not the only person who owns reborn dolls for this reason. There are countless reports of women collecting them to grieve from either the loss of a loved one, or to fill the empty void left behind when a child goes off to college.
I will say that some of the artists in My Fake Baby take their hobby to the extreme. For instance, one woman claims to place beating hearts in her reborn dolls. I’m all for realistic, lifelike reborn dolls, but using a beating heart is a bit too much in my book. Besides, I’m not even sure how it would continue beating without the use of a battery. In any case, check the clip below for a sneak peek into the documentary that so many reborners are talking about!
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