Several years ago, Lisa Robertson created a Facebook support group to discuss the ups and downs of parenthood. It’s a sanctuary where people from all over the world make pregnancy announcements, trade ...

Two dozen lifelike babies lie nestled in a nursery in Traci Knoppe's home in Missouri. Except the cribs and bassinets aren't holding real babies. They're dolls. Jaime Beebe began bringing her dolls to ...

Scrolling through TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen videos of disembodied hands squishing hyper-realistic silicone baby faces (or, um, pulling a tiny baby figure out of their mouths). Some folks ...

Kiersten is a mother not to human children but to dolls—specifically “reborn” dolls, a specialized class of hyperrealistic faux babies that inspire spooked curiosity in casual observers and fanatical ...

In the Reborning subculture, collectors “adopt” hyper-realistic artificial babies–impeccably crafted from vinyl, glass, doe suede, and up to eighty layers of paint. The “parents” care for their dolls ...

Brazilians like Ana Paula Vilela (above) are pampering their hyper-realistic baby dolls -- and sparking debate. AP SAO PAULO — Videos featuring emotional moments with hyper-realistic baby dolls have ...

Kelli Maple tenderly sets her bundle of joy, Naomi, into a Nuna car seat and drives her to the mall. When they arrive, Maple, 23, places little Naomi, dressed in a onesie and hair bow, into a high-end ...

"You see a doll, I see a baby that I never got to hold,” a woman said after receiving criticism for having a reborn doll Laura Ise; Coly Trigg/TikTok Lifelike dolls, known as reborn dolls, have been ...

When Lexi Friberg saw her baby for the first time, it was love at first sight. “The eyes, glowing and without a pupil, really captured that vacant, infected feel for me. But the happy, smiling face ...

To some, the dolls, known as reborn dolls, provide comfort, escape or just plain fun. But politicians across Brazil have tried to pass bills banning the dolls from public spaces. To some, the dolls, ...