Exclusive:
Margriet Shein is determined to shake off the misconceptions surrounding her lifelike baby dolls despite the abuse she has received online – she insists they can help people more than you realise
Are you scared of baby dolls?
From 1989’s Chucky to the more recent Annabelle series – eerily lifelike dolls springing to life is a classic trope. Even if you’re just slightly unnerved by these toys, it’s likely Hollywood had something to do with it.
But Margriet Shein is determined to shake off the misconceptions surrounding her ‘reborns’, which look strikingly similar to real babies. While you may assume these are just toys, this is not the case at all, with her work created to help people including those who have suffered miscarriages.
“A reborn doll is a handmade doll that looks and feels just like a real baby. It has been sculpted, painted and hair by hair, the doll is ‘rooted’,” Margriet, an Instagrammer from the Netherlands (@margrietsreborns), told The Mirror. “My interest really started when I lost two pregnancies, I thought this was a good reason to buy a doll.
“My babies were biracial and it was really hard to find a doll that looked like they could have been a baby of me and my husband. So, I started to paint and create them myself. When I posted my first doll online, some people told me they would buy a doll like that. So, in November 2023 I started making dolls ‘for real’ and selling them.”
As of now, Margriet has created 16 biracial dolls with each taking between one and three months to make. This largely depends on their size and skin colour, which is built up in ‘hundreds of translucent paint layers’. Every single hair is also inserted with a tiny needle, and this process alone takes around 40 hours.
Although Margriet is passionate about her craft, she is trolled on a daily basis, with people branding her dolls ‘ugly’ while assuming that she must be ‘mentally ill’.
“Lots of people tell me they hate my face, my dolls are ugly, or that babies don’t look like that,” she continued. “Some call me ‘racist’ or tell me ‘I use others’ grief for my advantage’. In the beginning this really gave me some sleepless nights.
“I thought about removing my content altogether or just stopping making reborn dolls. But then I realised that there are a lot of people who feel comforted by my dolls. They [can] give a ‘face’ to grief and a tool for therapy… I remember all of the loving messages that I get. And that changes everything.”
Margriet isn’t the only one to think reborns can help with mental health struggles. Various studies have found that dolls are incredibly useful in therapy, especially for clients working through complex trauma like family violence, sexual abuse and the loss of a child.
Counsellor Georgina Sturmer told The Mirror: “We all cope with loss and grief in different ways, and there is no right or wrong way to do this. When we have lost a baby, we might seek to connect with a ‘reborn doll’ as a way of allowing ourselves to connect with the baby that we have lost.
“To express our feelings and to feel a sense of physical connection with our grief, through holding or touching a doll in this way. This can be therapeutic when we are coping with the myriad of feelings that accompany our loss.”
As part of doll therapy, clients are often encouraged to interact with baby dolls as if they were real, ‘dressing them in clothes, holding them, and even talking to them’. It’s thought these interactions can help individuals process their stress or grief while reducing anxiety.
Margriet continued: “Try to set aside the horror movies you have seen and search for actual trustworthy sources. A doll in itself can be a tool for grief, but in addition to that they can also help in official therapy. Like acting therapy, exposure therapy or re-scripting.
“I hope to be a change by talking about the benefits of these dolls and to bring a face to a happy doll collector. I think it is very important for people who don’t understand our hobby to ask their questions.
“It is okay to ask questions, because that is an opportunity to learn something new! Just be kind and polite, and the world will be a better place.”
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