I have mentioned before that I never had dolls to play with when I was a little girl.

Actually, that is only partially true.

While I didn't have a doll that you could hold in your arms and whose hair you could brush, or dress up, my parents somehow managed to score some dolls for me - Paper dolls.

Most little girls played with Barbie dolls - Sometimes at sleepovers I got to play with them. I remember staying over at this one girl's house - She must have had a hundred Barbies. She also had some other dolls, tucked away in her closet. These dolls were magnificent. Some lay in their boxes, sleeping, and some were haphazardly thrown on the floor and stacked on the shelves. I was around 10 and had never seen so many dolls in one place except for the toy store.

◊This article was written by cosette and published at hubpages.com. If you are not reading this article at hubpages.com, it is a stolen article.◊

Paper Doll Book

When I asked if we could play with those dolls she laughed and said "No, those are for babies! My sister plays with those!"

I liked Barbie, but having never had any doll of my own, especially a baby doll, or dolls that were life-sized, I was fascinated with the ones in her closet, and thought how sad that they were all lying there like victims of a car crash; their bodies crumpled on the floor, legs sticking out and clothes all mussed. I was secretly hoping she would give me just one to take home, but she didn't.

I wandered over to her desk and saw a brightly colored book with glossy paper. Inside were pictures of dolls in their undergarments and dotted lines around them and on the opposite page, assorted cute outfits. Here a blue sailor dress with matching shoes and a big sailor hat with a blue sash - There a frilly pink dress with polka dots all over. A flip of the page revealed cute attire to wear at the beach - A yellow and navy blue suit with anchors on it, a lime-green set of capris slacks with matching crop top, and another swimsuit - this one hot pink with big yellow daisies on it.

Mix and Match

I said "Let's play with this" and she said she didn't like those and I could have them. So the next day, I took out my paper dolls and started playing with them. It was fun choosing an outfit for your paper doll, then pulling it off of the page and putting it on the doll. It wasn't the same as having a real doll to play with, but it was better than nothing, and instilled a love of fashion in me that never really left.

I would dress the paper dolls in different outfits, or mix and match, then draw a scene like the beach or a park and then put the dolls on the paper to see how they looked. This also inspired my creativity. I already loved to draw, and had been drawing since I was five, but this added a new dimension to it, because now I could create little scenes for them. I felt like Harold and his purple crayon, kind of.

Contemporary Paper Dolls

Of course, being part of a large family, and one with babies and dogs running around, it was inevitable that my paper dolls, however carefully put away, would fall victim to some sort of mishap. One day my little brother, who had just started walking, decided to play with them and ending up tearing them up because he didn't know any better.

And that was the end of my dabbling in the world of paper dolls. Over the years, I always paused when I saw paper dolls in book stores. I stumbled upon Sailor Moon paper dolls, I Love Lucy paper dolls, Victorian paper dolls, Star Wars (Queen Amidala) paper dolls, and Disney paper dolls, to name a few.

I never bought any, but it was fun looking at them. Paper dolls haven't really changed much over the years. They still require you to punch out the outifts and are still made of paper or thin carboard, although some come with glossy backdrops so you don't have to make them yourself.

Virtual Paper Dolls

There are actually a number of virtual paper doll sites where you can dress "paper" dolls with the flick of your mousepad. I discovered this one with Samantha Stevens from "Bewitched". It has a surprisingly large assortment of outfits and accessories. The clothes aren't all that cute, but it's still kind of interesting.

http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/paperdolls.htm

There is also a companion page for Tabitha Stevens, Samantha and Darren's magical little daughter:

http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/paperdolls2.htm

So next time you send your little niece a birthday or Christmas card in the mail, include a little book of paper dolls. It will be a fun surprise and they will appreciate it more than just a card with money in it.