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03/21/2017 03:38 pm ET
Inside The Misunderstood World Of Adult Baby Diaper Lovers
Here’s how one store is working to break down the stigma.
By Noah Michelson

Sex Heroes is an ongoing HuffPost Q&A series by Voices Editorial Director Noah Michelson that explores the lives and experiences of individuals who are challenging, and thereby changing, mainstream culture’s understanding of sex and sexuality.

Tykables, the only brick and mortar storefront in the United States dedicated to adult baby diaper lovers (ABDL), is located in Mount Prospect, a suburb of Chicago. Its customers, John-Michael Williams, the store’s owner says, include those ABDL who have a fetish or sexual interest in dressing like or pretending to be a baby; people who have a medical need for adult diapers and enjoy the brand’s options; and individuals, some of whom are on the autism spectrum, who find the diapers and child-style clothing provide a sense of comfort and stress relief.

To be clear, those in the ABDL community are not interested in sexual contact with children or babies, as some people mistakenly believe, but are interested in items and activities related to behaving like or pretending to be children. What’s more, some ABDL aren’t interested in role playing as a child at all and instead find pleasure in the texture or sound or feeling of clothing and pieces associated with the community.

Saying that people who identify as ABDL are misunderstood and maligned would be a colossal understatement. Even worse, not only do they face ridicule for having desires or inclinations that exist outside of what is considered by mainstream culture to “normal,” there are few places beyond the internet to express their identity, find community or buy goods related to their interests.

For those reasons, the mere existence of Tykables, which offers all three, is something of a marvel. What’s even more incredible to me, though, is that aside from some Mount Prospect residents who initially expressed concern about the storefront after it opened last spring, it’s operated for almost a year without incident. In fact, Williams recently told me that he hasn’t even experienced so much as someone ringing the doorbell and running away.

Williams chatted with me last week about what it’s like to visit the Tykables store, the biggest misconceptions about being an ABDL and much more.

The Huffington Post: Tell me about the typical Tykables customer.
John-Michael Williams: Our storefront is no different than our actual brand. There are really three main categories of people that we sell to: The adult baby diaper lover (ABDL) community. Then, we also have a lot of people who are incontinent or require, physically, to wear diapers, and who prefer our style and branding. And then the third category includes people on the autistic spectrum. They prefer our products over some of the medical products because we don’t focus on the medical aspect — we actually help them remove some of that stigma that’s associated with these products.

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What does the store offer?
It’s designed in a very playful way. It looks very much like a nursery, with oversize baby items, like a seven-and-a-half-foot crib and an oversize rocking horse, among our other things around the store. And we have our diapers and our full line of clothing items: our Snappies bodysuits, our denim jeans that we make, our padded briefs and our diaper line.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tyka...4b0be71dcf7e9ba