Rise of the Reborns

Hey kids! It's Jennifer Fabulous again, here to bring you another monthly dose of random awesomeness.
The other day, I was talking to my friend Jonathon and he introduced me to a topic I immediately had to research.
Did you know that there are middle-aged women out there who walk around with baby dolls, pretending they are real?
It is part of a world-wide phenomenon called "reborns."

Reborns are life-size baby dolls that are sculpted to resemble human babies as realistically as possible. They weigh the same as a baby. They wear real baby clothes. They cost around $500.

The craftsmanship is considered real art, with some dolls even fetching thousands of dollars.

And the majority of the women who "adopt" these babies are in their 40s. They get up at 3 a.m. to pretend-feed the doll. They carefully secure it in a car seat. They cradle it in public places like grocery stores and the mall. They push it in strollers at the park.
They crave the moment someone coos over the reborn and thinks that it's real. But they don't understand why most people get creeped out when they realize it's not.

These are grown women who have teenage children, or even infants of their own. In sadder cases, the collectors are women who have lost a child or cannot conceive. Some of them are just obsessed with the idea of having a perfect baby, frozen in time. A child who never grows up. In a BBC documentary I saw about the reborns, there was one mom who even admitted she takes better care of her reborn than her own children.

There are numerous youtube videos showcasing these women (and teenage girls) with their reborns. Some of them have elaborate nurseries set up for the doll. Some of them breast feed the dolls. Some of them collect dozens of reborns, showcasing them all over the house.

During an ABC News special, one woman tearfully admitted she has an obsession to take care of babies which will never grow up. Even though she had several kids of her own, she needed a "forever baby."

These reborns can be purchased on Ebay, Etsy, and personal websites. There are even meetings in almost every city where local moms can get together and show off their reborns and exchange parenting tips.
...thoughts? Would you ever buy a reborn?
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Thank you Jennifer for yet another amazing post!! Please sound off in the comments below! For this one especially I cannot wait to hear what you have to say!