A woman has garnered attention with her lifelike clay-made hyperrealistic dolls, leaving viewers astonished by their uncanny resemblance to real-life. Venezia Care, a 27-year-old residing in Toronto, Canada, developed an interest in dolls at the tender age of seven when she received one from her mother. Heartbroken by the unexpected breakage of her doll, she embarked on a journey to create her own replacement, a journey that has since become a significant part of her life story.

Venezia now creates dolls featuring facial differences and various health conditions to promote inclusivity. Using polymer clay, she hand-sculpts the dolls, drawing inspiration from her own baby photos as well as images of her friends and family. These unique creations are then either sold as one-of-a-kind pieces or mass-produced in vinyl for distribution worldwide.

The production time for her miniature dolls can be as short as a few months, while crafting larger dolls may take up to three years, depending on their size and complexity.

“I started making dolls with different health conditions because I believed it was important to represent all people in dolls,” Venezia says.

“Dolls were always used as a representation of perfection, and I think we are all perfect no matter how we are born. Some of these dolls are the product of many months spent researching a condition and using my creativity to sculpt the qualities I wanted the doll to have in order to make it as ethically universal as possible.

“I love depicting expressions that people can relate to in dolls with different conditions and putting the personality back into the reality of all conditions that are usually dehumanized because they are different.

“I have made dolls with Down’s syndrome, dwarfism, and craniofacial duplication. My dolls are made to explore and study other conditions, so I can spread awareness.

“My main goal in life is to represent as many conditions as I can. I like to dress them like any mother would dress their child and to show the world that they are equally worth celebrating and valued as a little life.

“After I have used an outfit, I usually donate the clothing to mothers and friends, so they can dress their beautiful babies.”

Venezia lost her job during the pandemic but was able to transform her craft into a full-time career. She also works part-time in administration and teaches art to kids. She finds the doll-making process to be “extremely relaxing” and even described it as “therapeutic” when she was younger.

Nowadays, she tracks her progress by keeping cabinets full of her older dolls. She compares her past work to her recent creations as a way to see how her sculpting has improved.

The doll maker recently showcased the fruits of her labor on TikTok, and one post featuring a doll with craniofacial duplication went viral with over 106 million views.

She captioned the post: “It doesn’t matter how long you live, every life deserves love and appreciation.”

The video, featuring a baby doll with what appears to be two fused heads, has garnered 4.6 million likes, and many are still in disbelief that the toy isn’t a genuine newborn.

“Who else thought the baby was real at first?” one person commented.

Another viewer added: “Omg…I thought it was a real baby.”

Regarding the reactions, Venezia says: “Although I have made many videos explaining why I make them and that they are dolls, a lot of people think they are real.

“I have mostly positive comments, but there are some people who aren’t very supportive.

“I understand for some it’s very hard to grasp a new outlook, when society has represented difference in such an ugly light for years.

“My family and friends are very supportive of my dolls and my message, as it took me years to show them first what my main goal in making them was.

“My mother loves to knit and crochet outfits for them and my father helps me make props to display them.”