We recently connected with Chelsea Pierce and have shared our conversation below.

Chelsea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I did was for a creator that I found on TikTok. She spoke about how she lost her baby soon after birth, and it broke my heart, especially since it was during the pandemic, and my heart went out to her. She spoke about how she only had a weighted bear the hospital gave her when she left without her baby.
I reached out to her and offered to make her portrait baby after the baby that she lost.

She appreciated and sent me several pictures of her gorgeous “born sleeping” newborn.
I created a doll for her and sent it to her as a gift from me.
Watching her hold the doll and place her next to her baby’s ashes made me feel so good about what I do for a job.

Chelsea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started painting reborn dolls in 2018 and decided a few years ago to create dolls for children with distinct perceived “imperfections” such as birthmarks, moles, and scars. Although I received many awful comments about my dolls, I received a few fantastic comments from parents or humans with the exact birthmark, thanking me for recognizing them. Recently, I moved on to restoring old dolls to give them a new “life.” My favorite type of doll is a vintage, rare American Girl doll that has lived in a basement and is covered in nail polish and Sharpie. I love a challenge!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to convey that every single baby is born perfect, no matter their “perceived imperfection” is. When comments come in about my birthmark babies, I think that they fail to realize that there are real humans, babies and young children walking around every day with birthmarks and we need to see them as beautiful and celebrate them instead of forcing them to hide behind makeup or not look at them .

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my social media from 1 follower to over 100k in six years. My biggest advice is to be yourself and post your failures more than your wins. I started showing my mistakes and showing other artists that I certainly do not have it all together all the time. We all start somewhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pumpkinsparklesbabies.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pumpkinsparklesbabies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092939247198
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PumpkinsSparkles
• Other: I sell some of my dolls on www.reborns.com/pumpkinsparklesbabies

Image Credits

All my photos