Hi! Thank you for checking out Life in Plastic.  My name is Jared.  I am a young professional and a relatively new, but passionate Barbie collector. I began collecting in 2011, when I discovered the Barbie Basics line.  It appealed to me because the dolls look more “real” than the “play line” Barbie dolls with their over-the-top, loud pink and glittery aesthetic.

I had to admire Barbie from afar during most of my childhood years.  As a young boy, my playmates who were little girls had Barbies and I enjoyed playing with them, but adults around me discouraged me from doing so. They practically forbade playing with dolls, understandably, as it was not a very masculine thing to do.

Now that I am an adult and secure enough in my masculinity (haha), I’ve rediscovered Barbie and she’s just as alluring to me as when I was a kid.

I started this blog because I want to share my art, which combines two of my hobbies: collecting Barbie dolls and editing images.  I taught myself Adobe Photoshop from a how-to book when I was in high school.  I’m no expert, but I have picked up many techniques over the years that lend a bit of realism to my Barbie scenes.

My original concept for the blog was to create a Barbie-centric web comic series for grownups, but that project quickly became too daunting as my cast of characters quickly grew, while my plot ideas were still nowhere to be found.  It was too ambitious a project to do “on the side”.

I decided to pare it down to a more manageable photo-blog of “realistic” scenes featuring the dolls in my personal collection.  And that’s how “Life in Plastic” came to be!

Enjoy!

-Barbie Guy a.k.a. Jared