• 1. The craft of making reborn dolls began in the United States in the early 1990s.

  • 2. Almost all reborn customers are women, particularly older women.

  • 3. The internet has allowed doll artists and collectors to create an online society focused on reborn dolls.

  • 4. The process of creating a reborn doll is referred to as reborning and the doll artists are referred to as reborners.

  • 5. Reborn dolls are primarily purchased on the internet.

  • 6. Depending on craftsmanship, they range in price from $50 - $4,000.

  • 7. The International Reborn Doll Artists (IRDA) group was created to educate artists in the art form of reborn doll making.

  • 8. Some consumers of reborn dolls use them to replace a child they once lost, or a child that has grown up.

  • 9. These dolls are usually taken seriously and are cared for like an infant.

  • 10. In 2002, the first reborn was offered on eBay.

  • 11. Reborning is most popular in Britain and Australia.

  • 12. “Preemies” are smaller dolls molded after premature infants.

  • 13. Preemie dolls may come in incubators with a breathing apparatus attached to their nose.

  • 14. Purchasers can have magnets attached inside the mouth or head for attaching a pacifier or hair bows.

  • 15. Electronic devices that mimic a heart beat, or make the chest rise and fall to simulate breathing are common.

  • 16. In July 2008, police in Queensland, Australia smashed a car window to rescue what seemed like an unconscious baby only to find it was a reborn doll.

  • 17. Reborn hobbyists refer to the emotional response to holding their dolls as cuddle therapy.

  • 18. Mothering reborn dolls rather than just collecting them can become a problem when it is used as prop and becomes the person's only form of socializing.

  • 19. The remarkable degree of realism is achieved by dozens of layers of paint, beginning with tiny veins and mottled skin.

  • 20. Some women dress the dolls, wash their hair, take them for walks in strollers and take them shopping.

  • 21. At least one nursing home in the United Kingdom makes dolls available to female residents.

  • 22. Reborn Doll therapy has had amazing effects on Alzheimer's patients.

  • 23. They are sometimes called “memory” babies.

  • 24. What started out as a sub niche of the doll collecting industry has soon risen to become a world wide phenomeon.

  • 25. The best reborn babies come equipped with spines, squishy tummies and other soft, human like body parts.

  • 26. If you're willing to pay top dollar reborns can even be tailor made to resemble a picture of an infant you provide.

  • 27. Some reborn dolls are made to resemble monkeys and apes.

  • 28. Hair and eyelashes are usually made out of real human hair.

  • 29. People who amass a large collection of reborns make reborn nurserys.

  • 30. You should never buy a reborn doll for a woman without her consent (if you are trying to fix mental problems).

  • 31. Memorial reborn baby dolls can be made to memorialize lost babies.

  • 32. Reborn babies will never grow up, never move away, and never wake you up in the middle of the night for a faux baby bottle because they are hungry.

  • 33. In addition to a complete baby wardrobe the moms will have pacifiers, car seats, faux milk and faux juice bottles for their precious reborn babies.

  • 34. Their bodies are soft and weighted with rubber pellets, micro glass beads, and sometimes sand.

  • 35. The proccess of getting a newborn baby is often reffered to as “adoption.”

  • 36. Reborn dolls are usually made individually by home-based artisans.

  • 37. The first annual International Reborn Doll Artists Conference! was held in Orlando, Florida on January 21-23, 2005.

  • 38. Reborn owners often rotate their dolls. Fran Sullivan, 62, says she rotates her dolls, choosing a new one to care for each day depending on how she feels.