Internet craze sees teenagers turn themselves into freakish living dolls

**dowcat** · March 29th, 2012, 12:48 PM

Meet the real-life Barbies: Internet craze sees teenagers turn themselves into freakish living dolls

Dakota Rose and Venus Palermo become internet hits
YouTube tutorials give tips on how to transform into a living doll
Concern it could encourage sexualisation of young girls

By Sadie Whitelocks
Young girls are fast becoming internet sensations not because of their vocal skills or dance moves, but because they resemble living dolls.

Staring doe-eyed at the camera, with cupids bow lips and a porcelain complexion Dakota Rose has been hailed a real-life Barbie.
Known to her fans as Kota Koti, she has amassed a global audience with her YouTube fashion and beauty tutorials.

Dakota Rose is being hailed as the real-life Barbie for her doll-like features

In most of the videos she remains silent while subtitles provide the viewer with a step-by-step guide on how to apply cosmetics, style hair or dress fashionably.

'I usually prefer something lighter. I would only wear this to a club, night time event,' she writes below a 6 minute video demonstrating how to apply 'nighttime eye make up'.

It is said that Dakota is especially popular across Asia as her sense of style appears to be inspired by the Japanese anime culture, in which big eyes and long straight hair are key features.

Little is known about the teenager but some websites suggest she is aged between 16 and 18 and from the west coast of America.

Despite her growing success, some commentators have warned that she could encourage the sexualisation of children.

Venus Palermo, known online as Venus Angelic, has also gained popularity for resembling a living doll

Venus Palermo has 78 videos on her official YouTube page - ranging from makeup tutorials to nail art

A Bolivian newspaper, Opinion.com.bo reported: 'Thousands of girls around the world have shown interest in this girl, wanting to look like her.
'It is a great risk that girls are being influenced in this way.'
But Dakota is not the only one to have fashioned herself as a living Barbie.

Venus Palermo, known online as Venus Angelic, is a 15-year-old girl who has also taken to the internet detailing how to look like a living doll.

After spending time in Japan and inspired by the craze for Japanese anime she decided to give her image an overhaul on her return to London two years ago.

She now has 78 videos on her official YouTube page - ranging from makeup tutorials and nail art to dancing and her Facebook page boasts over 13,000 fans.

Little is known about Dakota Rose but some websites have suggested she is aged between 16 and 18

Beauty tutorials: Known to her fans as Kota Koti, Dakota has amassed an ever-growing global fan base

Doe-eyed: In most of the videos she remains silent while subtitles provide the viewer with a step-by-step guide

A real-life Barbie? Teenager Dakota Rose, who styles herself as a living doll, has become an internet hit for her online demonstrations on how to recreate her look

Despite critics her mother approves: 'She actually thinks it's cute to wear cute and frilly clothes.'

While Venus said. 'I don't think that I will ever stop. I think I will grow in my style and just keep doing what I love.'
While the living doll-look is going global, in Asia it has been a long-running trend.
As early as 2010 it was reported that an increasing amount of Japanese women were aspiring to look like dolls, embracing femininity and obliterating sexuality altogether.
Naoko Kamijyo, then 19, told the New York Times: 'I’m no great beauty, but I love to be made up. I want to change myself, to be unrecognizable. Who wants to go through life just being themselves?'

She reportedly woke up at 5am every morning, spending at least two hours applying false eyelashes, false hair extensions, layers of foundation and other makeup products in a bid to look like a Barbie doll.

A recent poll in Taiwan of 13,000 students revealed nearly half started surfing the internet before the age of seven, and some start as young as three.
It found a correlation between the frequency of online social networking and the level of concern with appearance and self-image.

While the living doll-look is going global, in Asia it has been a long-running trend

Some commentators have suggested the doll-like girls could encourage the sexualisation of children

It is said that Dakota is especially popular across Asia as her sense of style appears to be inspired by the Japanese anime culture, in which big eyes are a key feature

'I don't think that I will ever stop. I think I will grow in my style and just keep doing what I love,' says Venus

Read more: Meet the real-life Barbies: Internet craze sees teenagers turn themselves into freakish living dolls | Mail Online

**twitchy2.0** · March 29th, 2012, 01:11 PM

some commentators have warned that she could encourage the sexualisation of children.

hogwash. I'm freaking sick of the "Won't somebody pleeeeeease think of the children!!!" crap.

**Air Quotes** · March 29th, 2012, 01:17 PM

^This.

**monk** · March 29th, 2012, 01:20 PM

Loretta Lux does it so much better

Loretta Lux

**OrangeSlice** · March 29th, 2012, 01:20 PM

Dakota reminds me of Rory Gilmore in a way.

**Ravenna** · March 29th, 2012, 01:31 PM

Some commentators have suggested the doll-like girls could encourage the sexualisation of children

Because everyone sexualizes dolls.

On second thought-- wut?

**fgg** · March 29th, 2012, 02:13 PM

Originally Posted by OrangeSlice

Dakota reminds me of Rory Gilmore in a way.

she's a bit creepy but very pretty.

**nancydrew** · March 29th, 2012, 02:24 PM

Reminds me of some border line creepy shit from a Marilyn Manson video

**NVash** · March 29th, 2012, 02:26 PM

15-year-old Living Doll is YouTube's Controversial New Star
By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Parenting – Fri, Mar 23, 2012 6:35 PM EDT

At 15, Venus Palermo has grown into her doll obsession rather than out of it. Under the screen name Venus Angelic, the London based teenager posts beauty tutorials on YouTube for fans who want to look like her. But that's not why she's the latest viral video star. It's because she looks like a living doll.

According to Palermo, you too could be a ball-jointed doll (or BJD as she calls it) with the right over-sized pupil contacts, plastic-sheen-effect powder and pure white eye shadow. Based on her 5 million viewers and the legions of lookalike fans on her Facebook page, people are taking her advice.

Video: father's extreme parenting goes viral
The modern ball-jointed doll is widely popular in Japan, a country both she and her mother are obsessed with. "Mommy cooks Japanese, thinks Japanese, goes to Japan with me," writes Palermo on her blog. "Because we like it. Liking something, is soooooo GREAT!" Palermo is actually Austrian, Swiss and Hungarian but she's been studying Japanese along with several other languages. Her multilingual background is how she explains her accent, which sounds close to the Midwestern Harajuku-obsessed college kids satirized on Saturday Night Live.
Palermo's obsession, however, isn't taken as lightly. Her videos have been labeled "bizarre" and "disturbing" in the media. Her uncanny appearance is sounding off alarm bells for concerned critics. Modern Asian ball joint dolls have become increasingly more life-like, with a line of human-sized, physically mature dolls recently released for the kind of consumer you don't want anywhere near your teenager.
Related: when parents turn their kids into online superstars

The perverse comments on the 15-year-old's videos is proof she's attracting some unsavory fans. So is the occasional grown man dappling the list of Palermo's Facebook fans. But the teenager's mom doesn't appear to be intervening in her daughter's risky hobby. Mom serves as host of Q&A chats between teenager and fans. In one video posted last year, she sat by while the teenager had an uncomfortable conversation with a 24-year-old male caller who professed his love and then proceeded to belittle her.

In text under that video, posted to VenusAngelic's channel, Palermo refers to her fans as "lovers." The title of the video is "Insane Guy in Love."

"The case of Venus Angelic is uncomfortably exploitative, as there is clearly a sexual undertone to what she is doing," says Hilary Levey Friedman, PhD, a Harvard sociologist who has written extensively about child exploitation in media.

"In general, young girls on YouTube is a disturbing, growing trend," she says noting the recent trend of pre-teen girls asking viewers if they're pretty.

In many cases, parents are unaware of their child's webcam usage, until their uploads go viral. But in other instances, the parents are facilitators.

"Remember, Justin Bieber got his start on YouTube with the help of his mother," says Levey Friedman.

Levey Friedman wonders whether Palermo's mom has similar aspirations for her daughter. The YouTube stage parent is relatively new concept. Most kids have risen to viral fame for just being kids, and if a parent profits off of that they're immediately criticized. The rare performing prodigy, like Bieber, is an exception. But Palermo doesn't fall into either category. She may be bringing a Japanese trend to Western teenagers, but she's also attracting a largely unwanted fan-base.

The question then for a parent is whether it's better to support a child's passion or protect her from what could come of it. "I'd hate to rob a kid of her blissful ignorance but I guess the fact is, at 15 years old, innocence is a luxury teens can't really afford," argues The Stir's Jacqueline Burt after watching Palermo's videos. "I guess it's our job to tell our kids when something they're doing could be misinterpreted and why."
Better a parent than an "insane guy in love."

Source: 15-year-old Living Doll is YouTube's Controversial New Star | Parenting - Yahoo! Shine

Heres some more on Venus Palermo with a video at the link.

I dont even know where to start with this. I saw it and immediately thought that she might be on 'My Strange Addiction' in a few years. Then I saw this thread. Wow. Where are the parents? Im not saying the 'Think Of The Children' thing, so much as 'My Child Wouldnt Be An Internet Celeb If I Had Anything To Do With It'.

**sputnik** · March 29th, 2012, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by NVash

Where are the parents? Im not saying the 'Think Of The Children' thing, so much as 'My Child Wouldnt Be An Internet Celeb If I Had Anything To Do With It'.

are they wearing anything provocative? posing like myspace sluts? showing their tits? no.
you see everyday girls doing way sluttier stuff on facebook than what these girls are doing. they do make up tutorials and dress up like dolls. i don't really see what the big deal is.

Originally Posted by twitchy2.0

hogwash. I'm freaking sick of the "Won't somebody pleeeeeease think of the children!!!" crap.
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this.

**witchcurlgirl** · March 29th, 2012, 02:40 PM

fuck the children. i'm tired of hearing about them.

**Brookie** · March 29th, 2012, 07:40 PM

Pathetic.

**Kat Scorp** · March 29th, 2012, 08:10 PM

The mother sat there while some grown man "professed his love" of her 15yr old daughter, and then "belittled" her child? I totally understand what NVash is saying. The kid is attracting attention of a sexual nature on her facebook and even from callers/webcam chatters she's in contact with, but the mother doesn't seem to give a rat's arse. That's worrisome.

She reportedly woke up at 5am every morning, spending at least two hours applying false eyelashes, false hair extensions, layers of foundation and other makeup products in a bid to look like a Barbie doll.

A recent poll in Taiwan of 13,000 students revealed nearly half started surfing the internet before the age of seven, and some start as young as three.
It found a correlation between the frequency of online social networking and the level of concern with appearance and self-image.

In my mental gratitude journal, I write: I am grateful I was born in the early 80s and grew up in the early 90s, and got to avoid this crap. What kind of arse-backwards parents let a 3yr old surf the web? I understand letting the idiot box and a Wiggles video babysit your kid for an hour while you shower and have a break, but letting a kid surf the web?