I am a collector.
Not a dealer, not an expert with credentials, not somebody who will tell you what your doll is worth. Just a woman with shelves and a long memory and a habit of bringing things home.
It started with one doll — a Dollikin from a Christmas morning in my childhood living room, lost somewhere in the years between then and now. I found her again, or one like her, on eBay. That is a whole story of its own and you can read it here. [LINK TO FIRST POST]
After that, it did not stop.
What is on my shelves
A good deal of Barbie. I have a particular interest in the anniversary editions and the Black Barbies — the ones that took Mattel decades to make, and that mean something different to those of us who waited on them. The 50th Anniversary Generations of Dreams doll is a favorite. She wears the whole history of the brand printed across her gown.
Alongside those: vintage dolls from the fifties and sixties, Inspiring Women pieces, and whatever else has caught me over the years.
Some were gifts. Some I hunted. A few just turned up at the right moment, the way things do.
Why I write about them
Because a doll is rarely just a doll.
Ask a woman about a doll she had and watch what happens. She will tell you about her grandmother. About a house she has not been inside in forty years. About being seven, and what that felt like.
That is the part worth writing down. The dolls are how we hold onto it.
What you will find here
Stories, mostly. Photographs of my own pieces. History where I can find it and honesty where I cannot. Video when the telling is better out loud.
And once in a while, if something I have written sends you looking for a doll of your own, links to help you find one.
Thank you for reading. Pull up a chair.
[HER NAME — decide whether she goes by full name, first name only, or a collector handle. This affects the whole site, so worth deciding now.]