Handmade monster babies and the people who love them

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge, Shutterstock

When Arend Smith first learned about the reborn doll community, he was an investment bankers doing fantasy sculptures on the side. His talent began to attract people interested in masks, statues, and garage kits. When a client asked him to make a vampire baby, Smith was drawn into a new culture that would influence his decision to pursue fantasy art full-time.

One of my favorite vampire designs is the bat form that Dracula takes in the movie.

A reborn is a ball-jointed baby doll made of Silicone or cloth with glass eyes. People who can't have children and people who see dolls as a form of therapy are just some of the people in the community. When they realize that the baby isn't real, some people bring their reborns out in public. St-Hilaire sees promising implications in the reborn-human relationship for the future of artificial intelligence.

There are reborn dolls. There are baby krampuses, elves, bugs, satyrs, fairies, and vampire. There are new fantasy movies based on the likes of the Dancing Clown and the Grinch. Werepups are very popular, but are very labor intensive to make because of all the hair. Many dolls are made to fit babies. One of the most popular fantasy models is the blue alien from the movie.

Image: Rachel

Rachel, who wishes to only be mentioned by her first name, was drawn to the fantasy reborn world by the rebornAvatar Facebook ad. Rachel's collection includes eight vampire reborn dolls by award-winning doll sculptor Noemi Smith.

These are just a few of the kits on the market, which come as blank, unpainted dolls and start at around $120; some collectors learn to paint and stuff their own dolls and improve their skills through YouTube, while others buy finished dolls. The experience of holding something is a huge factor in interacting with a reborn.

The latest kit from Noemi Smith is Farnus, a satyr. Most people I spoke to owned at least one Noemi Smith fantasy reborn. The collector got her start with one of Noemi Smith's dolls.

She wanted a pale purple color, but the doll ended up in wild Dalmatian-style spots to cover up the dye job. Did you cut a hole in the body? You should get a new one. Do you mess up an arm? You can get another arm.

Fantasy reborns have a stigma attached to them even as a purely ornamental hobby, even though they have started to seep into cultural awareness through shows like High Maintenance and Servant.

For all their passion, fantasy reborn fans are ostracized by the mainstream doll community.

Some people love monster babies and some people don't, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be on the internet. We are just odd people and like what we like. No one is going to make a doll for 50 hours unless they like it.