I’m going to show you a video, but I want to warn you about it first. It’s one of the weirdest and most disgusting things you’ll ever see. If you don’t want to watch it, I understand, but you should still read on because we’re about to dive into the seriously bizarre world of pretend parenting.

OK. Get a drink of water and let’s move on.

You hopefully noticed something about that diaper-changing video, if you watched it: it’s not a real child. And, thankfully, that’s not real poop. What you’re seeing is a “reborn Baby,” a silicone simulacrum of an infant that retails for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Unlike most baby dolls, which are primarily marketed to young girls, these are typically sold to adult women.

Soothing isn’t necessarily the word that comes to mind when I watch that video, but to each their own.

Some of the biggest reborn channels on YouTube have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. They tune in for dolls getting dressed, changed and running through their bedtime routines. Comments coo about how sweet the babies look, as if they were real children

It hasn’t seemed to help.

The reborn doll industry is a fascinating one. Because they’re a niche product, there’s no “big company” that produces them. Instead, a network of artisans around the country painstakingly manufactures them one at a time, often to the custom specifications of the buyer. The number of therapeutic buyers is now dwarfed by hobbyists.

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