A model was left in shock after discovering a company had created a sex doll that looks exactly like her.
Not only that, but she claims the company 'stole her identity' to create and market the sex doll, using her name and videos from her personal social media to promote the product.
Yael Cohen Aris, 26, was horrified when one of her Instagram followers informed her that a Chinese company called Doll Studio had made a toy that almost exactly resembled her.
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She claims that Doll Studio used her likeness from social media and created a remarkably similar likeness of her, right down to a tiny beauty spot on her face.
The Israeli model said the doll had also been given her name and the company used footage from her Instagram account to promote it.
Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield were horrified when Cohen joined them on This Morning last year, in which she explained how a follower tipped her off to the existence of the doll.
Philip said: “Legally we’re supposed to say it's alleged it looks like you, but it’s a bit blatant because they use photos and videos from your Instagram account to sell the thing. It’s even got your name!”
Holly added: “This really does come down to consent. This is your identity that’s being taken away and that’s a sex doll, so how does that feel seeing that?”
Yael went on to tell the hosts that she actually ‘doesn’t have anything against’ the company or the sex doll industry, it’s just that she wasn’t told anything about it.
She hadn’t consented to have her likeness used, and – to be honest – that’s just one of the things that’s weird about it.
She said: “It’s double wrong because it’s connected to my identity. It’s not just a doll that looks like me - they never hid the fact it’s a doll from me.”
Now, she’s taken legal advice and hopes to get the doll removed from sale rather than getting any money.
Yael explained: “It should get off the shelves. Maybe we can talk once that happens.
“I think learning a lesson is the best thing to come out of this story - just to try to bring a real conversation about our privacy if we want to share ourselves online.”
However, there is a ‘positive side’ to this, which is that Yael is at least trying to use the fact that someone wants to mimic her in this way as a compliment.
She said: “In everything that happens, I always try to see the bright side,
“They did it without my consent, they use it for commercial use, it’s a sex doll - all these crazy things - but it does mean people find me attractive, so I guess I chose to see it as flattering.
“Everybody likes to feel attractive. They just took me - a random girl from Israel.”
Topics: Weird, This Morning, Sex and Relationships
Ali Condon