Blythe dolls: too scary for children, loved by adults

This weekend 230 people, mostly women, will gather in a hotel in Manchester for a 40th birthday party. The birthday party happens to be for a doll: Blythe.

If you don't know Blythe by name, you may know her by sight. She is instantly recognisable by her big, lollipop head and huge, vaguely manga-style eyes which sometimes change colour; her expression is slightly forlorn. She mostly sports geek-chic hair - a heavy fringe, sometimes dyed different colours - and wears vintage-styled outfits. Blythe is basically a mini version of Zooey Deschanel and Katy Perry combined. Except she's a doll.

Saturday's event is the annual, all-day Blythe Convention for fans, taking place in the UK for the third consecutive year. There will be stands selling the latest Blythe outfits and masterclasses on "how to sew a dress for Blythe in under an hour." Later there will be a big birthday cake, competitions and raffles, with all proceeds going to charity. Tickets for BlytheCon, as it is known, sold out within weeks of going on sale.

"There is a large Blythe community in the UK," says Sam Holland, a university research fellow from Leeds who is co-organising this year's convention. "It's a surprisingly social thing to do - mostly, though not always, grown women getting together, sharing a creative hobby. It's an unusual hobby, yes, and there can be a lot of nerdiness around it. But it's really no different from any other hobby."

Blythe is big business, although it didn't start out that way. The dolls were first made in America in 1972 (hence the 40th birthday) by now-defunct toy manufacturer Kenner, but they never caught on. The big head and the big eyes made the dolls too scary for little children to play with, and Blythe was ditched after just one year.

But nearly 30 years later, a Blythe renaissance occurred. Gina Garan, a TV producer in New York, was given an old Blythe doll by a friend. She fell in love with it and started hunting down Kenner originals on eBay.

Garan, an amateur photographer, started taking pictures of her Blythe dolls, styled up as if in in a fashion magazine. In 2000, her photo collection was snapped up and published in a book called This is Blythe. Over 100,000 copies of it have sold since.

A year later a Japanese company, Takara, began to produce new versions of Blythe. This time her popularity soared, and not just in Japan - thanks to Garan's book and website, the Blythe craze was well and truly under way.

There are now Blythe conventions all over the world, including New York, Barcelona and Berlin, where thousands of Blythe fans congregate every year. In the UK, there are also smaller 'Blythe Meets' taking place regionally and regularly. Blythe has even featured in advertising campaigns for Sony and Alexander McQueen.

For most Blythe fans, it's not so much about playing with the dolls but more about photographing them. There's a huge Blythe community on Flickr, where amateur photographers share inspiration and set each other challenges (one challenge involved taking a photo of your Blythe in a new outfit and setting every day for a year). At BlytheCon this weekend there will be a Flickr wall, where collectors can meet their online friends in person for the first time.

Julieanne Kay, who is in her 40s and lives in Manchester where she runs her own business, owns six Blythe dolls. She bought her first one 10 years ago. "The first time I saw Blythe, I thought she'd just be amazing to photograph. I've always been very into my photography, and Blythe is very endearing and very photogenic. It's quite a creative process, thinking of how to photograph them and set the scene."

"Blythe is a great muse," agrees Fiona Berger, 53, a Briton who now lives in Norway. She is travelling back to the UK for BlytheCon with her daughter and says she is "addicted" to Blythe - she owns 277 dolls, including three original Kenners. "She's so versatile, she can be whatever you want her to be - cute, mysterious, sophisticated or nerdy. Taking photos of Blythe is a great way to share the hobby with others online, and that's a real part of the appeal."

It's not just photography that draws Blythe fans in - there's an entire world of Blythe fashion and craft to explore too. Etsy is flooded with Blythe accessories, from tiny handbags and shoes to smock dresses, headbands and thick framed spectacles.

"There's so much talent in the Blythe community, it's hard not to be inspired by it," says Jess Lowndes, a 24-year-old software developer who owns 11 Blythe dolls. She's taken up knitting and crochet since discovering Blythe eight years ago. "I can appreciate the time and effort that goes into making such detailed things at such a small scale."

Blythe dolls are, however, an expensive hobby. Original 1972 models can easily fetch over £1,000 on eBay, while even recent Takara versions can cost anything from £60 to over £200. Even the tiny clothes come at a considerable cost. Are they worth their price tag?

"It's a lot of money to pay for a doll," concedes Holland, who owns six Blythes. Her first doll, which she bought in 2010, cost £220. "There's a very busy international retail market - some people are prepared to pay thousands, which is amazing. It is kind of weird, when you think about it. But then you could say it's also weird how people pay loads of money to watch a load of men chasing a leather ball around a field."

Holland, who specialises in gender and subculture in her research, says it tends to be professional women buying Blythe, purely because they want to. "These aren't desperate women with 14 cats, these are intelligent women with careers and children who have a hobby," she says.

For many Blythe fans, owning and photographing the dolls and getting to know other collectors online is a welcome and often rare escape from reality. Holland bought her first Blythe because she desperately wanted a distraction from her job; something that was creative and would inspire her artistically in her spare time.

Lowndes, who is about to start her PhD, doesn't think she'll ever grow tired of Blythe. "One of the nicest things about her is that she's there when you need her to be. She's an excellent way to de-stress," she says. "I can go through patches when real life means I'm too busy to do 'doll stuff' but when I'm free again, I can pick her up and it's like we were never apart."