My Evocative Object
Pink baby, and later to be known as Baby Jordan, was the first “friend” I ever had. It was a pink doll that I was given at birth, and I brought it everywhere with me from my first sleepover to blueberry picking with my family. It rarely left my side until I got older. As a kid, it was the perfect companion, played well with my other friends and was there with me through everything, nightmares, playdates, and listened to everything I had to say. The presence of this plastic pink doll kept the outgoing spark alive within me.
Growing up, I gradually feared more and more about other people’s options and started fearing and learning the concept of social norms, and slowly became more embarrassed to keep this doll with me and would keep it hidden between my bed and wall so that my friends wouldnt know, and later it eventually moved to a dusty box in my basement, along with that extraverted self. Looking back, I am fond of my younger self and how outgoing she was. She took that doll everywhere with her, without a second thought, not caring what others may think. Baby Jordan was a comfort to my younger self, a friend who would do and go through everything with me.
Connections to the Inner and Outer Self
From the perspective of Sherry Turkle, my doll Baby Jordan was more than just a toy. Turkles describes evocative objects as things that connect through feeling and thought, acting as companions through life. This doll is a transitional object, as described by D.W Winnicott, a theorist who believed that transitional objects “are destined to be abandoned. Yet they leave traces that will mark the rest of life. Specifically, they influence how easily an individual develops a capacity for joy, aesthetic experience, and creative playfulness”(Turkle 314). The transitional object of my doll, Turkle suggests, is a bridge between my inner world and the larger world surrounding me, marking my stages of growth. Constantly being with me, I created an environment where I felt unselfconsciousness and began to hide it once I learned about embarrassment, social rules and identity. Putting it in my basement, the doll now became a memory attached to an object that I no longer hold present in my daily life, but it shaped a part of me.
Materiality of an Object
Bill Browns thoughts on materiality adds another layer of understanding that materiality is more than just the physical presence, but an object whose texture and use created an emotional connection. Brown said that “materiality thus glimmers as a new rapier, cutting two ways. On the one hand: Doesn’t the medium elide the materiality of the object it represents? On the other: Aren’t you ignoring the materiality of the medium itself, the material support, the medium’s embeddedness within particular material circumstances, its material ramifications?”(Brown 50), My doll worked in both these ways as I got older, I dismissed the presence of my doll, hiding it away as if it had no meaning. But my doll Baby Jordan carried both material and immaterial meaning suggested in the brown chapter; the soft texture of plastic was a familiar presence were not just the physical quality of my doll, but anchored my feeling of safety and belonging. Even after she was put away in a box, the doll holds traces of how carefree and confident my younger self was, and my confidence to express myself. The materiality extended beyond “just being a doll,” it transformed into an object holding memory, emotion, and growth. My old doll shows how objects can embody parts of ourselves, being both a companion in the moment and a lasting symbol of who I once was.
Refection
Reflecting on Baby Jordan and seeing how such a simple object from my childhood can carry so much meaning, then its physical form allows it. Being an evocative object, the doll carried joy, self expression and companionship. Through Turkle and Winnicott, we can understand how Baby Jordan bridged my inner and outer worlds around guiding me through learning stages of growth and awareness throughout my life. Brown’s insight into materiality and how it further highlights the doll’s physical presence through the texture, shape, and tactility, how it was inseparable from the emotional and symbolic presence it holds. Even now, being stored in a box, my doll Baby Jordain, though it is not an object used in my everyday life, holds meaning and memory that embodied my younger self, my fearlessness. It now reminds me that the objects we cherish are not just objects but symbolic identity, experience and transformation. In this way, my doll had taught me about how material and evocative objects shape who we are, in present and past moments following us throughout our lives.
Work Cited
Brown, Bill. “Materiality.” Critical Terms for Media Studies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 2010, pp. 49–63
Turkle, Sherry, ed. Evocative Objects: Things We Think With. MIT Press, 2007. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025
Alisha, I really loved reading your reflection, especially the way you traced your relationship with Baby Jordan through different stages of your life. The line that stood out to me most was when you said: “Putting it in my basement, the doll now became a memory attached to an object that I no longer hold present in my daily life, but it shaped a part of me.” That perfectly captures how evocative objects live beyond their material form and how they continue to shape us even when we’re no longer consciously interacting with them.
I also found the way you described Baby Jordan as your “first friend” so touching and profound. It made me think about how friendship, in its purest form, isn’t necessarily always human. There’s something beautiful about the idea that your doll reflected your openness and confidence as a child, and that by revisiting it, you’re almost reconnecting with that part of yourself. It makes me wonder how many of our “first friends” from childhood, the ones that taught us comfort, empathy, or imagination still shape how we form relationships today?
This is truly “things we think with,” just like Turkle puts it. Thank you for sharing something so personal and universal at the same time. : )
Hi Alisha, I really loved reading this :)! I liked how you connected your childhood attachment to the doll with Turkle and Winnicott’s ideas about transitional objects; it did a good job at examining how something so small can carry such deep emotional and developmental meaning. The line about your doll being “a bridge between your inner world and the larger world” stood out to me, as it perfectly described that tension between childhood freedom and growing social awareness as we age. I’m curious, do you think rediscovering Baby Jordan now could help you reconnect with that more fearless, expressive version of yourself? Or do you think those qualities have just transformed into something new as you’ve grown older? Your reflection really made me think about how the things we hide away physically can still shape us emotionally. Thanks for sharing :_)
Hi Alisha! This was such a touching and sincere reflection, and I really loved how you traced the emotional life of Baby Jordan alongside your own growth. The part where you described hiding the doll between your bed and the wall really resonated. It captures so vividly that shift from carefree childhood to a more self-conscious adolescence. Your connection to Turkle and Winnicott felt so natural as well, especially how you showed the doll as a “bridge” between your inner and outer worlds. I think you captured that exact feeling so beautifully. How something as simple as a childhood toy can carry the texture of who we once were, and remind us of the confidence and warmth we’re still trying to hold onto.