Creating more realistic child dolls is an increasingly growing trend among collectors and hobbyists. The challenge involves making the dolls resemble real human children to the greatest degree possible. The term given to this practice is creating reborn dolls. This new market is exciting for long time crafters who have grown tired of the more typical and far less realistic dolls that have been on the market for years and years.

Within approximately the last five years the Reborn Doll Market has shown a significant increase in popularity. This can be attributed to a number of particular artistic concepts that have gained recognition. These techniques produce dolls which are more life-like. The Berenguer and Preemie Dolls have been around for a number of years. These dolls, with their true-to-life expressions, details and physical characteristics, have contributed greatly to this Reborn Doll Fad.

A doll can go through a process in which it is upgraded and, in a sense, reborn. This requires the disassembly of the doll. The doll is stripped from its artificial appearance and the paint is removed to reveal a plastic shell. If necessary, the shell can be altered. In the end, a doll can transform into a more appealing and realistic model.

A lot of methods are used while making reborn dolls to make them look more realistic. To make the skin color of the doll look natural a purple color is added to the inside of the plastic parts. This process adds color tones beneath the plastic. After that the outside of the doll is painted with many different skin colored paints. To make the doll look even more lifelike they even go as far to use other techniques and styles to add skin lines and blemishes.

Using real human hair or soft, humanlike mohawk faux fair, hair and eyelashes are added to the doll, causing the reborn dolls to have human-like characteristics. This process can take dozens of hours, since it is often done by hand and by strand. After application of the hair or hair-like features, the doll is reassembled with a softer filling and underbelly. Other additions may also be added, such as a breathing or heartbeat sound to create a realistic sense of the dolls being alive.

For those who want to make their own without as much work involved, there are reborn doll kits that allow the purchaser to make their own reborn without as much work. Most people who want one, however, shell out the money (often upwards of a few hundred dollars) to purchase one. These dolls have also become popular gifts for newborn mothers, often replicating the condition of their children after birth as a memento.