Paper Dolls

Flat and one dimensional, paper dolls are as far from the cuddly rag or plastic versions as, to use a well worn cliché, chalk from cheese. Still, they had a very firm and fond place in my childhood and, I imagine, in other children’s lives as well.

Thrown on my own devices as an only child since the nearest neighbours had no children of playing age, I spent much of my time either buried in books or engrossed in a make-believe world made a little more plausible by these dolls. They were named Nora and Tilly – blonde and brunette twins – and were published by a women’s magazine. They would be faithfully cut out every month, pasted on cardboard and dressed up in the wardrobe supplied. Soon, the wardrobes started expanding with the assistance of wrapping paper, crayons and paints and huge dollops of imagination. One could create whole environments and situations assisted by the accompanying short story, detailing the recent happenings in their lives, unfettered by time and place. To a little girl cut off from real live playmates, they were a lifeline.

Today, paper dolls have no place in a world where toys have developed beyond all imagination. My playthings were home and handmade – knitted, crocheted, stitched, crafted, woodworked, and drawn. They were unique in that they carried the label ‘manufactured with love’ and were not mass produced in some factory, churned out by the thousands on a conveyor belt. Today’s child would consider me deprived, but I certainly never felt that way.

When you have to fall back on yourself for entertainment, creativity takes wing or so I would like to believe. ‘Designing’ the dolls’ clothes allowed me, in later life, to design and stitch my own. Fashioning my make believe world made English Lit and Lang classes a fun place to be; it was so easy to be transported to foreign realms peopled by the likes of folk from Jane Eyre to Prospero. Writing an essay in class? No problem, except that time ran out far too fast!

Did I say that paper dolls would have no place with today’s generation? Well, I was happily surprised and tickled pink to find that electronic ‘paper dolls’ exist on the Net. Several websites allow you to pick and choose appearances, apparel and accessories. The child in me delighted in the discovery and reaffirmed my supposition that paper dolls unleash creativity, as is very evident by their electronic avatars!!

*I was pleasantly surprised to find 'collectors' who had scanned the Nora and Tilly pages from the W&H. Grabbed a pic for this blog - trust they will not mind!