Dolls with Dolls with Chelsey Weber-Smith

Nothing could have prepared me for how terrifying those dolls sounded.

Dolls who have dolls are the luckiest dolls in the world ♡

I beg to differ about barbies not being as creepy—but I may be biased by the fact that when I was a kid, my older sisters told me my barbies would come to life and kill me in my sleep if I wasn’t nice to them!!! Then, after accidentally pulling the leg off one of my barbies, I had recurring nightmares about a one-legged LARGER-than-life size barbie chasing me and dragging me away from my family. LOL just normal girl stuff!!!

You have to talk next time about one of the creepiest dolls. Ventriloquist puppets! Here’s a link to the world’s only ventriloquist museum https://www.venthaven.org/

My sister and I were huge doll fans as kids and one time we came home from going out as a family and our dog had torn my Lissi doll that I'd gotten for my sixth birthday (I was 8 at the time) to shreds and I was sobbing like my child had been mauled and my mom was like "WAIT, I CAN FIX THIS" and she grabbed a present off of the top of the china hutch that she had gotten 2 years prior to send to my cousin who had a birthday around the same time but she never sent and I got to have that one instead. And I still have it and she wrote on the back "Happy sixth birthday, Annie, 1990 (rep. 1992)"

on switching doll voiceboxes: i am pretty sure this was a simpsons plot

My grandma was and still is, obsessed with baby dolls. She had a massive collection that use to sit out in her house. My mother gave birth to my sister in 1993, and there are some infamous photos of my mom digging an opening among my grandmas wall of baby dolls, to set my newly born sister amongst them so she blends in. How’s that for uncanny

Listening and playing dolls aka The Sims

I took my mom to babyland general a few weeks ago when I realized how close it was to my new home (ATL). I discovered it because of your podcast, thank you, It was gloriously horrifying.

the stuffed animal guilt is SO REAL

Remember on Meet Me in St. Louis the little girl continually diagnoses her dolls with chronic illnesses and then buries them?

I was yelling "Cynthia!" LOL love rugrats

Need to know what the store is...? I'm in PDX too 😊

Loved this episode :) also I was wondering if there is an issue with Apple Podcasts? I can’t load/listen to any of the Keiko episodes. Other episodes seem to work normally!

One of my dad’s first jobs was making the birth certificates for cabbage patch kids! He was on Long Island not Duluth 😉

This gave me the idea to be a doll for Halloween holding a smaller, identical doll that’s also holding an even smaller, identical doll, and I have less than 7 months to procure these dolls

me, screaming at my speaker: CYNTHIA!!! 🎶SHE'S A REALLY COOL DANCER!!! 🎶

Looking at my Kirsten American girl doll ornament with her holding a doll like yeah!!!

❤️❤️❤️❤️stuffed animal feeling❤️❤️❤️❤️

I am a preschool teacher and the creativity and ingenuity of children remains very present. What’s incredible is it only takes one extremely imaginative child to inspire the other littles. Last week I was responsible for a paperclip doll, a stack of Lego bricks with a face doll, countless stuffed animal babies, and a popsicle stick with a tissue wrapped around the top. It has recently suffered a head injury and I was responsible for the post -op care while we waited for its grown ups. We have several baby dolls in the classroom and watching the kids assign themselves rolls and choirs to support the babies is outstanding. Some want to be siblings, others the mom or the dad… one extremely precocious girl always wants to be the family dog.

I had a Samantha Doll and she went to the doll hospital when her eyes stopped closing. She did indeed come back in a hospital gown and with a hospital bracelet. She was a gift from my grandmother. It was a very big deal picking out which one I wanted. It took me a while to choose between Molly and Samantha.

Shout out to chickens as dolls! As farm kids, we used to dress our little fluffy bantam chickens up in doll clothes and push them around in a toy pram 😆

Is Michael Hobbes the Angelica?

Finally my two worlds collide! Going down the Pleasant Company Catalog rabbit hole of my elementary school dreams was my Weird Covid Hobby, and eBay American Girl Doll collecting led to teaching myself how to sew for my dolls which then led to teaching myself how to sew for ME, and now listening to your podcasts while sewing is my favorite activity to stay sane while the world burns outside. Anyway, I have the dollies and my 9yo dreams of one day owning all of Samantha’s shit to thank for all of it.

I used to cut off the little picture of the princess on my princess dresses because WHY would Snow White have a picture of herself on her own dress. Didn’t know til 20 years later but it was in fact a sign of neurodivergence!

Having been a gay kid in the 80s and 90s, I feel seen. My sisters had American Girl dolls and I always wanted a doll with a doll, but it wasn't an option. You better believe I have stuffed animals to this day.

Did anyone else play “hospital” with their dolls/stuffed animals? I don’t remember coming up with specific diseases— no dolls were coming down with, like, typhoid— but I do remember playing a lot of doctor and setting up my other dolls as if in an operating theater. I feel like I’m making this sound adorable but really look back and find it a little freaky (psychosexual..?). Guess we’ll never know!

I was such a doll girl. When I started feeling too old to play with them, I became super into the sims. I think they're very similar for me. You can dress them up and create a narrative. Some kids destroyed their barbies, and some people destroy their sims. The sims also have their own sims in the game. They can log onto the computer and literally play "The Sims", just like dolls with dolls. When you zoom in on the screen, you can see the graphics from old sims games. I still do play the sims at 30, so I guess I still have dolls. I wonder if there is a common dolls to simulation games pipeline. Great episode🪆

I had a Barbie Halloween "costume" that had a big Barbie head on the dress! I had that exact same argument with my parents about how weird it was!

i listened to chelsey’s doll episode on a plane and nodded off and then woke up to the haunted doll noises, scared to death

Sarah you scared me to death when you said " the doll may be standing behind you!"... I was on the bus in broad light but still that sent shivers down my spine... I was expecting jolly episode but that was so creepy 😳 I don't want to see any doll to the rest of my life 😜😂😂😂

Wow. Sounds super researched - after all these years, comparing to others through the years that are really fading fast... really worth it to stay paying here. Totally accessible to all your listeners - we all are here for this, listening to you & your friends & all the same posters here. Great . Thanks.

I’m only 16 minutes in but I hope you get to talking about one of my FAVORITE hyper obsessions: the small Paleolithic and Neolithic sculptures of women that survive in large numbers—all of whom do a better job representing actual women’s bodies than most parts of media today. Clearly, we have always wanted dolls…

I literally just say “CYNTHIA!” loudly to no one in my kitchen, when you both asked me what Angelica’s doll was called. Sleeper cell activated.

Sarah Marshall have you listened to the incredible podcast that is now called Dolls of Our Lives, with the absolutely smashing Mary & Allison?? Please listen to the whole thing, it’s WONDERFUL. Two bff historians going through the original AG books, and discussing all things girls, play, history, doll, material culture. If you ever have Mary and Allison on your podcast I will freak out 😅❤️🫶🏻 my favorite podcasters.

Sarah, EVERY American Girl doll (original, through Kit at least) had their own doll 🥹❤️🫶🏻 I WILL be sending an email with thoughts lmao, but the dolls having dolls is so important.

Loved reflecting about my playing habits as a kid haha

omg omg this is so exciting I'm commenting before even listening!!!

omg i loved this episode. what you said about how adults need imaginary friends too made me realize that that's something we tend to use pets for. i constantly talk to my dog as if she's my roommate like, "what do you think Goose? should we watch an x-file?" It's cracking me up to realize that she's very much just my babydoll

As an eBay person, I remember getting into rabbit holes on some of the creepy haunted doll /haunted item listings 15-20 years ago. My 2 favorite listings 1) Haunted Stitch doll (which seemed like unfair typecasting); 2) a haunted toaster who had attracted John Lennon's spirit. There were so many creepy old doll listings. And each story engaging.

Chucky was based on the My Buddy Doll. My brother had one, we called him "Little Jason" (my brother's name is Jason), as though that's less creepy, somehow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwF-zy2Ypo And the baby of the Barbie family is Chelsea.

american girl dolls are my absolute favorite thing on earth lol

I had two American Girls dolls -- Samantha and Kirsten. I had the Clara doll with the nutcracker doll for Samantha. And I had Kirsten's doll, Sari!

I need an entire Nothing Much Happens style episode of y'all much more slowly reading the types of dolls and dolls objects people played with. Both from the study, and from these comments. 💗😴😌

OMG the call back to "Every Corn Is A Glamorous Woman"🤣 There's a house in my Boifriend's neighborhood we walk by that grows corn in their yard and I think about (and sometimes sing) that song when we take the dogs by. 😊

I had a "life size doll" (like as big as I was when I was 3 years old) and I named her after my big cousin, Julie. No idea what happened to that doll. I think real life Julie is a Tr*mper nowadays but I've tried not to look too far into it bc I'm sick of losing people to the MAGA cult. 💔 Boy howdy, that took a dark turn.

OMG did anyone else have and LOVE the book Nu Dang and his Kite as a kid?? 🪁 Chelsea's story about the nearly-lost lil lizard reminded me of that book! It was my favorite and I used to have my mom read it to me every night!!🦎 🥹💗

shout out “THE DOLLS ARE LIVING” - a segment from Roz Hernandez’s Ghosted by Roz pod (great pod great gal) where she reads ebay haunted doll ads every ep!

The way I was singing “aww topsy” already before Sarah even started 😭

I work at Greenfield Village, current location of Menlo Park. I've been strongly suggesting we incorporate these doll recordings into the Hallowe'en decorations, but no luck yet 🤣

I had a teddy bear named Sally who I love, love, loved. I have a memory of looking into her eyes when I was 3-4yo and being surprised to see resentment and anger in those eyes. To adult me, that revealed how the childhood emotional neglect I experienced from my parents convinced me that I was a burden & unlovable. It's very validating to me so I'm sharing it here. Young children can feel & internalize that shit.

The "I can fix him" adopt a haunted doll

omg i could cry with happiness lol my favorite podcast doing an episode on my special interest!!!

Slightly terrified because I just woke up from a dream about haunted dolls to this episode!!!!

Lost a stuffed animal years ago and I still feel guilty. Getting a tattoo in her honor next month. Thank you for all the throwback references! ❤️

Definitely going to invite you guys to Clownvis’s next Haunted Clown Doll Adoption event

Ooooooh Sarah, as someone raised with the hope of parents of being boy, I have to tell you… I think Chuckie is based on the “My Buddy” doll which I had, and haunts me now. I wish I could see your reaction to googling “my buddy” 😭🤣

Another costume annoyance is when a hood has a face! I had to look very hard to find a bear onesie consume (for both me and my baby) that didn't have a whole bear face on the hood instead of just ears. I don't need 2 faces to be a bear!

The voicebox swap was a stunt carried out by the Barbie Liberation Organization in 1993 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie_Liberation_Organization

Love this, but wish you had Eve Lindley on for this to add more dolls.