Participant Judy Gao, 20, said that she had met Saito in the dormitories of Nyu. Gao moved from Singapore to New York in 2021 and quickly experienced isolation in the new school, the new city and the new country. She said that the management of her fears of cocovated and creeping Asian hate crimes was overwhelming. “The worst part is that I moved to New York by myself,” she said. “It was so alone.”
Things changed when she met Saito, who had moved from Japan and felt a lot of these same emotions. One day, Saito brought an angel from Sonny for Gao. “It reminded me of me,” said Saito.
Cynthia Laforte, psychotherapist with an approach based on attachment and based on object relations, told Buzzfeed News that articles can offer a form of tangible security. “When children have dolls or membership, what we call a transitional object, the object helps the child. And as the child grows, the object becomes internalized, “she said. “There are a lot of discussions on how things like phones are objects of transition, giving us a personal feeling of security, love, peace.”
The meeting is somehow on the dolls, but not really. People have embarked on long -standing internet friends, finally meeting IRL after discussing Discord, or exchanged social media handles with news. Some have said hello to their favorite influencers by Sonny Angel, offering their negotiable doll bags.
