I found this in Chat Magazine and thought I'd share it with you all!

Originally posted in Dolls More Dolls Group on Multiply - 16th May 2009 3:00 PM

Not sure if it's readable so here's a brief synopsis....

This guy, Giovanni Madonia, aged 32, grew up in Sicily and at the age of 12 his mum takes him to a toy shop and asks what he wants for his b-day, well he's spotted the Barbie Dolls and fallen in love so he begs for that...

He shrugs off all the teasing he gets from the other kids around him and goes and gets himself 2 more ...By the time 10 years have passed he's collection has grown to 1000 which after deciding to move to the U.K he left in Sicily.

 He begins collecting again...and long story short, he discovers Ebay and... he now has a collection of 3200 Barbie Dolls and a Barbie tattoo...all paid for with his job as a Bouncer!

Member's Comments:

lorainehelen wrote on May 15, '09
very unusual...............he must have been teased a lot.......

weebairns wrote on May 15, '09
Well done to him, WHY NOT I say. My youngest son James had a thing for dolls as a toddler, and used to pinch them off the little girls at Playgroup, his brother used to laugh at him and John wasn't happy but it never bothered me at all, it hasn't stayed with him but if it does, can't see anything wrong with that

lilacmermaid wrote on May 15, '09                                                   
I love people with character, we are all unique and i think it's that that makes the world interesting, good for him, very interesting story, thanks for that, Janet.x

 ievelyn wrote on May 15, '09
Just like our Russ eh : )

 cabbiedaddy wrote on May 15, '09
omg... 3200 Barbies wow ,thats amazing, even though I had lots dollies when I was youg.. and still do I was never teased , in elementary my class was mostly girls there were only three other boys and myself two of the boys were best friends and excluded everyone they wanted in their games so I spent lots of time playing with Barbies - my favourite was pretty in pink Barbie, I had an amazing collection of Kens , life as a child is so wonderful ,a real shame we loose the ability to think outside the norm as we grow older, I have a elementary teaching degree and kids are much more hip about things than we give them credit for - Jimmy

kitschartherb wrote on May 15, '09, edited on May 16, '09
Oh Jimmy what a lovely story...thank you so much for sharing it with us...I'm afraid you may be in the minority tho' as boys do get teased an awful lot if they are not playing with guns...ho hum...I refused to let Aaron have any as I felt it was wrong to gender stereotype children (girls = dollies and boys = guns) why not mix it up I say! needless to say his Uncles bought him Guns anyway but he also played with my Niece Naomi and her dolls, I think playing with them brought out his nurturing side ... you should see him with real babies...he's a natural!

On the subject of this guy...He was brought up in Sicily (Home of the Mafia) where it seems boys are brought up to be manly (more gender stereotyping) in my opinion being a man doesn't mean you need to be aggressive and to label boys as gay just because they play with dolls (Aaron's experienced this) is just plain wrong...liking dolls should not be subject to sexual stereotypes either...my guy wants my 2 Cabbage Patch Kids to attend our wedding!! lol

And yes Evelyn it reminded me of Russ too, so much so that I thought I'd share it with him...I really hope it makes him smile to see that someone else is as Barbie Mad as he is!!

dollectabledonna wrote on May 16, '09
good on him if he has the space lol , Russ lives in a tardis!! his barbie collection is fantastic there is pics in his album if its still on here?
Men hold/ feed children , cook and make dinner, shop ect ect so children should play with what they want to mine had everything no gender taken into consideration but zarah my daughter only played with cars lol and is still car mad now