According to recent news reports, elaborate fake babies—called “reborn dolls”—are becoming popular with adult women. 

The dolls, which can cost more than $12,000 (but often sell for several hundred or a few thousand dollars)—have extremely realistic hair and incredibly lifelike facial features and skin tone, thanks to many hours spent by artists who paint them, complete with one-of-a-kind birthmarks—and painstakingly apply their locks and lashes. Some of the dolls are made to look exactly like premature babies and delivered with an incubator and even with IVs.

Some younger women claim the dolls satisfy their maternal needs. Some middle-aged women claim the dolls comfort them as their children leave for college. Indeed, companies will supply custom-made dolls that closely resemble a woman’s own baby—born twenty years before.

More and more doll collectors are embracing a market that produces realistic baby dolls. The creativity and hard work necessary to produce the lifelike figures has been named "creating reborn dolls." This article takes a look at this popular trend, explores its popularity, and suggests some pros and cons.

A review of doll history indicates that the Berenguer and Preemie dolls were the forerunners of this current trend. These dolls were the first of their kind to closely resemble human babies with their realistic expressions, body shapes, materials used on the outer surfaces, and other lifelike attributes. Once the desire for realism was sparked, doll artists began to experiment with laborious processes to eliminate artificial appearances. Discoveries of new artistic techniques resulted in more realistic enhancements for reborn dolls....

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