Baby boom

Having appeared in the United States in the 1990s, reborn is a doll that looks like a real newborn. With an extreme realism and dedicated to different uses, some of which are at the very least contested, reborn suffer from a bad reputation and are regularly pointed out as reborn artists (about 20 000 in the world) strive to create a hyper-realistic texture with details such as birthmarks, blood network, hair, pores, tears, saliva, etc. The use and destination of these dolls are grouped into several main categories: reborn artists, collectors, hospitals and finally adoptive fathers and mothers. Since the 1990s, the reborn world has continued to grow, and between the first baby reborn sold on Ebay in 2002 and today, there are more than 41 million «reborn doll» results on Google. The realism of the reborn is so amazing that the medical centers for dependant seniors do not hesitate to use it to relieve the elderly with Alzheimer’s disease and pediatric hospital units to use it for educational purposes. So, how can we not wonder about the weight of this society that arouses the need to conceive life in a snap of the fingers, or rather with plastic, acrylic paint and goat hair? What motivates a woman, a couple, to adopt - and not buy the word is taboo - a baby that looks like her, to love her like her own flesh, to walk her in a stroller, to dress her and build her a room? With a growing popularity all over the world (from the United States to Russia, China, Canada, Australia, Europe, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, etc.), the reborn, despite its negative media image, appears for many as a remedy for their loneliness, for their difficulty to communicate other than via social networks and replaces, in some cases, traditional treatments. For, if for some they look like «dead babies», for others they are synonymous with hope, well-being, and comfort. Fake babies, then, but they bring true happiness, love, and sharing.