Secret world of disturbingly lifelike £6,000 baby dolls as ‘new mum’ fakes her own birth

As a young woman from Scotland reveals she tricked her friends and family into believing she’d given birth to a little girl – which was actually a doll – the Mirror takes a look inside the secret world of reborns

Beautifully crafted – if not just a little bit creepy – Reborn dolls can be so lifelike that it will take you a minute to realise you’re not cooing over the real thing.

A young 22-year-old woman from Scotland has shocked the UK this week after fooling friends and family into thinking she had given birth to a real baby – which was in fact a Reborn doll.

It’s not the first time that life-like baby dolls have made the headlines this year – cast your mind back to January and the news was dominated by stories of former glamour model and mum Katie Price after she’d posted a picture of herself with new twin babies.

Katie, 47, mum to Harvey Price, Junior and Princess Andre, 19 and 17, and Jett and Bunny Hayler, 11 and 10, hadn’t given birth again but had shared her love of reborn baby dolls .

But Kira Cousins, 22, from Airdrie, in Scotland even went as far as to wear a prosthetic bump and post baby scans and photos of her gender reveal party on social media, according to those who know her.

At one point she said the baby had some challenging health conditions and friends rallied around buying her expensive items, including a £1,000 pram.

She claimed to give birth to a little girl earlier this month which weighed 5lbs and 4oz – however it has since emerged that her newborn daughter is, in fact, a Reborn baby doll.

In a post shared to TikTok, she admitted: “In my own words let’s set this straight. I was in bed when my mother came into my room and found it to be a doll. Prior to this, I had been keeping myself away from literally everyone.

“The next thing I know, I was confronted by all the family. Don’t for one minute think they let me away with this, they haven’t. And none of them knew. Neither did the dad and his family.”

While the woman’s scam has gone viral, there are lots of reasons people buy reborn dolls – for some people it’s a hobby and for others it’s to help ease grief or loneliness. But exactly how are these reborn dolls made to look so realistic?

Writer Melissa Twigg, who visited a conference room full of reborn dolls earlier this year, revealed: “The reborns are weighted to just over 7lb, crafted from proprietary silicone blends and poured into moulds that, in some instances, have been sculpted or 3D printed in the likeness of babies.

“Their faces are perfectly painted, their skin is velvety soft and malleable and their hair has been hand-sewn with just one or two strands per follicle. If you inhale, you will find that they have been scented with that heady mix of baby powder, soft new skin and milk,” she writes in the Telegraph.

And to make them smell even more like real babies, some artists also embed a light vanilla scent into the vinyl during the creation process. Once home, their owners can wash their clothes with baby detergent and apply baby powder-scented products to their clothes or blankets.

Meanwhile, doll auctions take place every couple of months around the UK and serious collectors start to queue before daylight to purchase dolls – some which are worth more that £5,000 and are sold within the first 10 minutes of the doors opening.

Sylvia Heszterterenyiova, 50, from Sydney, Australia, describes herself as a “mum to 250 babies” – and has a massive and rapidly expanding collection of reborn dolls..

She told The Mirror: “When my daughters, Veronika, 31, and Sofia, 27, were little, I relished every moment changing their nappies, dressing them in cute outfits and rocking them to sleep. When they grew up, I missed doing all those things. But when I turned 40, my children had the perfect solution.

“On my birthday, I heard the doorbell ring. I rushed to answer the door. There was no one there. Just a basket sitting on the doorstep. I crouched down, pulled the blanket back and gasped. The cutest face looked back at me. And there was a card that read: ‘I’m Isabella, will you take care of me?’

“My daughters beamed as I scooped up the baby. ‘Happy birthday!’ they cheered. ‘She’s gorgeous,’ I beamed. The baby girl had tiny curled up fingers, rosebud lips and plump cheeks. But she wasn’t a real baby. She was a reborn doll made of vinyl.”

Her daughters’ thoughtful present soon turned into a hobby and Sylivia’s collection began to grow. Before long she started to wonder if she could make her own reborns. “I went on a course and created my first handmade doll, Sally. I started my own company called Fairies Reborn Magic Nursery. Now I could choose exactly how I wanted my babies to look.

Syliva and her daughters take the dolls to the beach, on camping trips and to restaurants so they’re not ‘stuck at home all day’. “I’m getting so many orders from people wanting reborns as therapy dolls. There are some of my friends who don’t understand my passion for reborns, but I love them so much.

“They can give so much happiness. They even help Alzheimer’s patients retain and get back some of their memories. I’m so lucky to have reborns as my job and my hobby. I tell my friends I am always reborn pregnant – meaning I’m constantly working on a new baby, either for a client or for myself.

“My daughters are all grown up now and don’t live with me anymore. They will always come first. But I have a special bond for my reborn babies. I wouldn’t change my big happy family for the world.”