I breastfeed my 7 dolls and care for them like they’re real babies — I don’t care what haters think
She’s doing the breast she can.
Kelly Cunningham has always wanted to be a mother — but without a baby of her own, the New York native is breastfeeding her dolls.
The Ronkonkoma resident bought a Reborn Doll for her 27th birthday and says she quickly felt her maternal instincts kick in.
“I just couldn’t help but want to care for Jennifer like a real child,” Cunningham, now 29, told Caters of her beloved, lifelike doll.
“I can’t explain how it happened, but I suddenly got so attached to her and spent that week buying her clothes and eventually her own bed that sits next to the end of my bed in my room.”
“My dad explained to me it was normal to have that desire to be a parent now that I’m in my late 20s, so I didn’t really question why I loved these dolls so much like real children,” she continued.
Cunningham isn’t the only one to become emotionally attached to the dolls.
Reborn Dolls are known to be used as a form of therapy to provide a sense of comfort and connection for people struggling with infertility, infant loss or dementia.
Over the past few years, Cunningham has continued to add to her collection and now cares for seven Reborn Dolls.
Although she’s done research into the Reborn community, the doll momma has upset some with her care tactics — especially by pretend breastfeeding.
“I did my research with the Reborn community, so I already knew that breastfeeding a doll was frowned upon,” she said. “Looking back on it I should’ve kept it to myself because I made a lot of people mad admitting it.”
“The way I see it, it’s just a doll I’m breastfeeding. I never understood why a woman’s boobs are so sexual that it’s frowned upon to talk about it. If I was breastfeeding a real baby no one would say anything so why do people get so mad because I admitted I breastfeed?”
For her “older” doll children, Cunningham concocts a fake formula, as she says that real baby formula in the Reborn community is “a big no-no.”
Cunningham has herself been dressing up in various costumes — known as cosplay — for more than a decade. She recently decided to dress up her dolls, too.
“I remember I had the idea maybe two months ago now to start making both Reborn TikToks and cosplay TikToks. With my very first Reborn videos, I didn’t want to jinx it, but I had a feeling the videos would make me more viral than my cosplay TikToks,” she enthused.
“Ever since I was little, I always dreamed of being famous for something. I always dreamed of success.”
Cunningham’s Reborn dolls have helped her to achieve that. She currently has 23.7K followers on TikTok — @rebornmomof7 — where she shares videos of herself caring for the dolls and connecting with the Reborn community.
However, it’s harder to avoid the judgmental stares and rude whispers when she’s out with dolls in real life.
“When I’m out with my dolls in public, people stare at me until I’m out of sight. It started when I took Jen to the park 30 minutes away on foot so I could keep losing weight,” she admitted. “I saw everyone in their cars looking at me and I felt bad about myself at first.”
However, buoyed by her social media fame, Cunningham has found confidence.
“When I’m in public,” she explained, “I don’t care anymore what people think.”
