Katalina Ludokovich has loved cabbage patch kids for as long as she can remember. “My parents bought me one for Christmas when I was four. I had never seen something so beautiful in my life. That doll represented perfection for me. It’s a perfection I strive daily to obtain.”
Since her surgeries, the media has dubbed Ludokovich the “Human Cabbage Patch Kid,” a moniker she embraces wholeheartedly. She has undergone 55 plastic surgeries to date in her quest to achieve the beauty embodied by these squashed-faced baby dolls, including painful “head-rounding,” “mouth-sewing” (she can only consume nutrients through a straw), and “de-fingering,” an experimental procedure in which the fingers are sewn together to resemble the mitten-like hand of a plush doll.
In addition to the surgeries, Ludokovich wears her hair in tiny dreadlocks to look like yarn, and giant, colored contacts to make her eyes appear larger. After six breast reductions, she now focuses her diet on holding weight around her middle, to mimic the dolls’ soft and springy tummy.
“Beauty these days is all about creating the self you want,” Ludokovich said. “And who I want to be is a Cabbage Patch Kid.”
The media has slammed Ludokovich for what it perceives to be an unhealthy approach to personal fulfillment, as well as the extreme measures she has taken in pursuit of her goal. Diets consisting only of baby food and pure milk fat and the removal of all the bones in her legs make some people insist that she has gone too far.
Ludokovich joins the ranks of other human dolls including “Human Barbie” and “Human Ken Doll,” though she stresses that she does not wish to be lumped together with these other surgery-philes. “It’s not like that with me,” she said, using her arms to move her limp legs into some semblance of a sitting position. “For them, it’s an act. But this is the real me.”
While she enjoys the newfound attention, being in the spotlight is not without its drawbacks: “I hope that, in the future, people will see me as more than just the Human Cabbage Patch Kid,” she said, cheeks bulging. “I want to write a book—a memoir. It’s going to be called, ‘Human Cabbage Patch Kid.’”
As for now: “I’m just weighing my options, really,” said Katalina, tugging at her stringy bowl-cut. “I don’t have to worry about marketing, so I guess I’ll just wait it out for the best offer.”
