>>20795970
For me, I never know when the chance to take a photo may arrive. And honestly, it's just fun to carry a doll around. Most people seem legitimately interested in my dolls (but at the same time, I live in a rural area, so they've probably never seen anything like her before.) I've talked about how taking photos of them is good practice for composition and light studies and other bullshit, and someone else I know has mentioned using theirs to sort of "demo" outfits before committing to making them full-scale -- and even if you don't have a reason to "legitimize" having a doll in public as a grown-ass adult, so what? Some people have even expressed an interest in getting one of their own through talking with me about anime dolls and other BJDs (and a lot of them seem to either collect or customize Monster High dolls, go figure.)
I'm not like Danny Choo ordering a child seat at restaurants for his. I just have one of mine with me at the grocery store or whatever, not drawing attention to it, but not denying it either. And while I'll admit at first it was pretty awkward, these days I'm too far gone to care. I already regard myself as too fucked up to be a part of "regular" society (not for edgy reasons, tl;dr child abuse and other bullshit) so for me, I have nothing to lose being that freak with the dolls. I'll take one for the team.
And if more people wind up joining the hobby through encountering them, it's better for everyone by breaking down the stigma associated with them.
Carry your dolls anons, as long as you're not in an area where you're likely to get mugged it's fine.