I often feel rather sad when I read comments from fellow doll collectors of my generation who say that their children and grandchildren are not interested in dolls and may even actively dislike them. As children today seem to grow out of dolls so quickly it sometimes makes me wonder whether there will even be doll collectors in the future.
I think that a lot of us who blog about dolls or read blogs have come to the internet because there are not so many places to meet like-minded people in the real world. Many cities may not have a doll club or doll shows that collectors can go to. Doll Museums, which are usually privately owned, are closing down everywhere as the owners retire or pass away.
Luckily the internet has come to our rescue with many collectors like us sharing photos of their dolls and their knowledge. Apart from websites, blogs and Facebook groups a lot of them have chosen to do this by making YouTube videos. This is particularly true of younger collectors and its very encouraging to see how many there are out there.
I watch a lot of YouTube as it is a great place to find tutorials on various cleaning and fixing techniques as well as seeing different sorts of dolls. Naomi and I have been watching tutorials on various things such as how to paint faces and hair, how to fix swingy limbs, boil wash doll hair, make shoes from 3D fabric paint and doll clothes from balloons. Pretty well anything you want to try there is probably someone out there on the information super highway that has already done it and made a video.
Another thing that some collectors are doing is making stop motion films with fashion dolls. I wouldn’t have the patience to do this myself but I enjoy watching them and I think it is another creative way to play with dolls. I especially like that some of the people doing this are younger people. It’s good to see that not everyone grows out of playing with dolls at seven or eight.
Here are just a few doll channels on YouTube. I hope to post in more detail about some of these later on.
A Thousand Splendid Dolls –https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKF3M2yGqQvv-ZAIw6Am9Fg
Shelley who owns this channel has a massive collection of dolls, American Girls, Barbie, Bratz , Monster High and Disney are the mainstays. She does tutorials on fixing the dolls that she and her sister buy at flea markets and Thrift shops. I will write a bit more about them in a future post.
Sam and Mickey – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6W4YaL66OO7EVRZJlGcK8gE
Sam and Mickey are two Aussie girls who make stop motion films featuring Barbie and friends. These are parodies and might not be everyone’s cup of tea as they have a lot of shall we say adult content but they are very well done. They also occasionally make tutorials on how to do stop motion filming, how they make their sets etc.
Everything Dolls – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIBJUVtzaxaHhx6RtvdKJ2A
This channel is owned by Kelsey who I am guessing is quite young. Kelsey also makes The stop motion Barbie films which are a bit more family friendly.
Barbie0913 – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeWU2ak3VQ-Js0lQyeETOkQ
The Reluctant Reviewer and Kewpie83 are a mother and daughter team who do doll reviews of all types of dolls and action figures. You will also know Ashley (Kewpie83) from her blog “Confessions of a Doll Collector’s Daughter”.
Hairstyle Tutorials – https://www.youtube.com/user/pradbit78/featured
Lots of hairstyle tutorials and some for clothing, furniture and accessories too. These have a music background which I find distracting but you can always mute it.
Poppen Atelier – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcYRw5J5-C8plZoeZ7x2QQw/featured
This lady has tutorials on repainting, rerooting and making accessories plus she is quite entertaining to listen to.
So there is just a small sample of what’s out there in YouTube Land. Feel free to share any other good ones in comments.
Here’s the only doll video I have posted up to now.
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
Thanks for sharing. I like YouTube videos of doll unboxings and reviews as they enable me to see the actual doll so I can decide if I want it.
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Yes they are very helpful that way.
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I believe there will always be little girls who love dolls, and older ones who like to collect them. If we have no one that wants them when we go, I imagine they will be sold to like minded collectors who will enjoy them as we have.( And someone in our family will enjoy the profits!)
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I will probably put some direction in my will about how they are to be disposed of although I know Naomi would make sure that they all went to good homes in the end.
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I also enjoy A Thousand Splendid Dolls and Kewpie83 and Barbee0913. I would suggest you check out Benedolls a mom who collects with her children and Sunny and Lola another mom and daughter duo. Both of these channels focus on thrifty collecting.
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I will, thanks Jen.
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I am enjoying some of these and look forward to listening to them on my phone later. All my computer stuff is muted, so don’t do much u-tube-age there. Mostly blogs w/ text and reference sites. Some videos were actually quite easy to follow w/o sound. Great resource. Will definitely check out the ones w/ how to on live action as my eldest grandkids would learn along w/ me on that.
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There are several others doing it too. I picked a couple who do it regularly. Sam and Mickey is not for kids unless you are very broadminded.
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We have some younger members in our doll club. They tend to post on Instagram.
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to boldly go where no doll collector has gone before!
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Seriously I worry about what will become of my own collections of dolls, teddy bears, robots, doll houses and other toys and games once I am gone. I don’t expect someone will love them as much as I do. In fact people rarely want to keep anything that resembles clutter let alone whole collections. They want the space and they hate the dusting and caring for those extra bits and pieces.Of course there are those who do keep something that had once belonged to a loved one but eventually they get rid of it too. Apparently even being the teeny weeniest bit sentimental enough to keep some small item is wrong. But then that’s what these so called professional organisers are brainwashing people into doing. I could write a whole blog on this subject but this is the “Dolls” site and I am getting off track. Who will carry on with the collections, information and research of such things in the future? I’m sure there are those who would if only parents and others taught their kids that it’s ok to enjoy your childhood, play and indulge in something other than those bloody phones and social media. Ok I have had my rant!
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Love to hear you passionately feel for the preservation of our personal history, I am seeing many changes even in the way we are doing our personal/family research. Todays technology can be such a great tool, and you are both adding to it’s best use, bridging a gap of ignorance and understanding. I see so many of your blog photos when I research the dolls in my collection. Also it never hurts to have a community of collectors that make it a very fun/rewarding use of time.The added draw for is when family is involved, and there are stories, not just boxes stored in a closet.
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Unfortunately what your saying is true. I am a collector myself and not 1 person I know or am related to likes dolls. I dont think anybody would even want 1 if I was to pass. I suppose I will just enjoy collecting a few more years.Then I will start selling them so as not to burden my kids when I die.I even have a friend who is a mother to 4 girls under 6yrs and she forbade me from buying them dolls! She said she isnt going to raise her daughters like that and if they want to play with dolls they can do so at my house! It broke my heart but alas they are her children & not mine.So I must respect her parenting. Also people tell me that Dolls creep them out ,which is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. I love dolls w/all my heart and always will.. I love your post
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This is the sort of thing I often read in doll collecting groups and it makes me mad. This lady doesn’t want to raise her children like what? To have imagination? Kids need to be able to play “Let’s pretend” in fact I recently read that it was necessary for their brains to develop. As for the “dolls creep me out” thing I really don’t get that at all.
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I truly believe that just as we are collectors, there will always be people who will collect dolls and vintage toys.
Even if someone puts them on Ebay in the future to sell, whomever does buy our stuff, will probably look forward to enjoying it just as much as we have. And maybe pay a higher price for it.
Expensive as these toys are nowadays you can only imagine they will be just as prized somewhere down the road by other people who have the same interests.
OR we can load them into a truck and have them buried with us. ;0) A woman in the Tri state, in my home town ,wanted to be buried in her Cadillac, and was! Probably cost plenty.
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Well I hope that’s the case and these younger collectors I’ve met online give me some hope. Toys that are valuable will be bought if only for that reason. A lot of mine are not worth a lot because I debox. I guess I am looking for a Toy Story ending where they end up with someone who loves them for what they are.
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I think that will happen too.
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It’s sad that doll museums are closing. In a way, though people like you are creating online doll museums by sharing your knowledge about dolls with many images. It’s not the same as seeing them but it’s like a book or an encyclopedia. Also I think many times people become collectors of a certain item after they hit 30 or 40. You have to be comfortable in your “adult” skin before you can pursue things you once though of as childish but now think is cool. It is pretty awesome that young people are making films. I wish I had the patience for stop motion so I give them a lot of credit.
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That’s the way I see it too, that the internet is picking up the slack where doll museums are no longer around and let’s face it not every town had one anyway so this is more inclusive. I think you are right about needing to be comfortable in your own skin too as for the first few years I collected I didn’t discuss it with outsiders at all where now I am happy to tell people “I collect dolls”.
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Yeah, not many towns had a doll museum. We are lucky here in Tucson as we have a Miniature Museum which is pretty cool. Being comfortable in your own skin is one factor — for other people, being able to tell them “I wish I had such and such because it’s worth $5,000” will have them redefining “childish” things pretty quickly. i like teacups but I like the prettiness of them but I’m pretty puffed when I can get a pretty turn-of-the-century teacup. It’s cool to me when history and pretty go together.
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The scary thing I thought of is that one day there will be lots of images of stuff but no solid objects as they become fewer and fewer and fewer again. I hope I am long gone by then. I think I will be like the Egyptians and have a pyramid built. Then I can take the lot with me. Every last doll, teddy and robot! Imagine what they would say if they raided my tomb in the future. There would be no gold or money just a pile of toys and memorabilia.
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I haven’t even thought of what to do with my doll collection, probably request that they are not to be thrown away, but given to young relatives to enjoy. Hopefully, there will be a lot of children to give them to! My grand son says that lots of DOLLS creep him out , he says it’s all the eyes staring at him: especially, the ones that are more real looking with sleep eyes. It grieves me that some parents out of pure meanness will purposely throw out a child’s toy as a punishment. ( I have seen this a lot unfortunately!) I am a parent and grandparent, and if a child doesn’t deserve to keep a toy due to their behavior it is taken away sometimes to be saved until the child can better take care of it or donated ( unless there is a totally ruined toy, then trash it). That child is being told exactly why it is gone and whether or not it will be given back. So sad it would be if all toys were just trashed.
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I agree, so wasteful to throw out perfectly good toys and not a good example to set a child either even if they were being naughty. The way you do it makes a lot more sense.
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