Meet Venus Palermo, is 15 years old and lived in Japan for a while. While there she witnessed the anime (animation) characters that are popular in Japanese cartoons and culture. She began to dress herself up and apply makeup that mimicked the perfection of these characters.
The Manga (Japanese comics) fan says she decided to become a living doll after viewers on a Japanese video site she posts regularly at said she didn't look human.
"My viewers told me .. that I look like a doll, android or robot. I started to behave like something artificial, like a doll," she said in an e-mail interview.
"So the roots of my transformation, my self-realisation are in Japan.
Venus, known online as Venus Angelic, became an internet sensation after her online tutorials, in which she gives tips on how to achieve the bizarre look, received thousands on hits.
One of her top tips is to use contact lenses with a full, opaque color to make your eyes look doll-like.
Despite what her Facebook page says, she has left Japan and now resides in London England constantly dressed as a doll. On her Linkedin page Venus Palermo describes herself as a singer, dancer, YouTuber, model, actress, and well, a guru too.
She has 78 videos on her official YouTube page - including makeup tutorials and nail art.
Collectively her videos have over 10 million Youtube views. Her Facebook page boasts over 13,000 fans.
She likes to talk in a pipsqueaky voice that can grate on your nerves if you don’t completely adore her.
She is fond of saying things like “Hello my dolly molly inky pinky cotton candy clouds” in a feigned five-year old girl’s voice.
Venus, who has been dressing this way since she was 11, shares more about the girl underneath the doll with Yahoo! Singapore.
Venus, who speaks German, English, Japanese, Spanish and Swiss French,
says that her passion for being a living doll will still take second place behind her studies.
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. Experts however have expressed their concern the trend could encourage the sexualisation of children.
Dr Gray, clinical director at The British CBT & Counselling Service warned that too much emphasis on physical appearance from an early age could have "disastrous consequences", encouraging anxiety, depression and eating disorders later in life.
Venus fame has come criticism and harassment.
According to Venus, boys post messages on her Facebook wall asking to see her underwear and men honk at her on the street when she passes.
Several online bloggers have also slammed her as a freak and labelled her mother as controlling and stunting her daughters' social development by keeping her at home and restricting her interaction with the real world.
Venus says that the admiration "can be as dangerous as the criticism."
"Some of the admirers are disappointed if I cannot answer every mail -- but they write you everyday!" she lamented, "Some of them defend you against your haters, which can cause storms."
She also has no intention to stop dressing and behaving like a doll anytime soon.
"I've been happy with my doll look. But I'm just a teenager, so let's see how I change or don't change," she said.
