BY TIFFANY HARNESSSUPER-NICHE
SUPER-NICHE
Poppen Atelier: how to turn a unique hobby
into a successful YouTube channel
Poppen Atelier might sound like an impossibly cool celeb’s name. It’s actu-
ally the name of a YouTube channel created by doll-painter, Maryna Tezina.Poppen Atelier might sound like
an impossibly cool celeb’s name.
It’s actually the name of a YouTube
channel created by doll-painter,
Maryna Tezina.
Home ateliers—from the French
word meaning art studios—are
everywhere on social media and
cover countless forms of art with
how-tos and tutorials to keep view-
ers busy.
However, even noting that
Maryna is a “doll-painter” doesn’t
prepare you for what she has in
store on her unusual channel. Her
whimsical craft might surprise—
and hopefully inspire—you.
It’s been widely accepted that
mass-produced dolls like Barbie
and Monster High dolls set unre-
alistic standards for body image
and general beauty. While some of
these companies have attempted
to adjust the figures and faces
to be more realistic and inclu-
sive, they don’t stray far from the
originals. They have long legs and
big animation-style eyes. Barbie
dolls always look like Barbie dolls.
Unless, of course, they’ve been
handled by the likes of Maryna on
her Poppen Atelier channel.BASIC BARBIES BECOME ONE-OF-A-KIND
WORKS OF ART
Maryna turns every commonplace poppen—doll, in
Dutch—into a unique collectible, with a new video
coming out nearly every week. She begins by ob-
taining dolls with various existing features to align
with the character she’s mimicking. Some dolls have
longer or rounder face shapes and the bodies might
be more or less curvy. She removes all the existing