Ella Rodarte’s Eccentric Hobbies

Photo from  Ella Rodarte | Rodarte has spent years building up her large doll collection.

Ella Rodarte (12) expresses a unique hobby of collecting dolls. Her interest began in elementary when her mom would take her to the Disney store and buy her Disney princess dolls. From there, her admiration of dolls grew and she continued collecting them.

Rodarte mostly collect Monster High dolls, but there’s variety in her collection — from vintage to modern, she gets her vintage Monster High dolls from Ebay and modern ones from Mattel Creations. Not only does she collect Monster High dolls, but an assortment of other ones. “[The] front of my room is all Monster High dolls and the side of my room is my vintage barbies. I color organize them so it’s more cohesive,” said Rodarte. “[My favorite category] is the Skullector line.”

The Skullector Monster High dolls by Mattel are an exclusive line inspired by horror movies that combines the dolls’ signature style with classic horror movie characters. Rodarte owns the Annabelle and Hocus Pocus versions of the Monster High dolls.

Some people might care about being perceived as a senior who collects dolls in high school — but for Rodarte, this isn’t the case. She articulates how she feels about collecting dolls: “I feel like it’s special because I don’t see a lot of people do it and it feels unique. I know a couple people [who collect dolls] but they’re too embarrassed to tell other people about it,” Rodarte said.

Inspiring others to not be ashamed of a niche interest, Rodarte suggests to embrace that part of yourself. “Have fun and you shouldn’t care what other people think. If you enjoy collecting your dolls, collect your dolls,” she advised. However, Rodarte doesn’t only collect dolls — she also collects insights on people’s situations using her deck of tarot cards.

Giovanna Martin (10) clarifies the purpose of tarot reading: “It’s not knowing your future, it’s just giving you an idea of what it’s going to be.” While tarot cards are misinterpreted as “telling the future,” it instead serves as a basis on how your future might look by using the decks to mirror the person's subconscious thoughts and situations at that moment. Rodarte explained, “Sometimes the energy shifts so it’s not like, ‘Oh this [will] happen.’ It could change…”

Another misconception people mistake tarot reading for is that it’s “demonic.” Rodarte clarifies that people mistake it for being demonic because it is related to spirituality.

“It gives you advice there’s nothing bad about. It’s not dark so I don't like it when people think it's dark because it's different,” she said.

Starting off by cleansing the space with incense, she then shuffles the cards and asks questions to the person she’s doing the reading on. The people getting their deck read are asked if they want clarity on anything or general readings like love, friendships, family and school. From there, Rodarte continues with the knowledge of the tarot symbols. “It’s weird because cards pop out on their own. She doesn’t pull them out,” Martin said.

As a practicing tarotist, it may take months - even years to be confident that you’re doing readings accurately.

“I started getting into it because my brother's ex was into tarot cards and spiritual stuff so she got me into that and in 2021 my mom got me my first tarot deck,” Rodarte said.

She explained how long it took to understand the process, “It took me years… Some people learn fast, [but] I try to take my time and really analyze the images and what they mean.” Tarot decks have 78 cards with different meanings. These represent archetypes or symbols that reflect the subconscious. She writes down the meanings in her notebook so she doesn’t forget.

These symbols mean something to Rodarte, “What makes it special is the connection with the card, the connection I built and how I could reflect on my life because the cards mean different things; what you should and shouldn't do and how you can fix this about yourself to make your life better.”

She has also done readings on one of her friends: “She read my past and at first I was skeptical - I think everyone is, like you don’t really trust it. Then, she started reading the cards of my past and she lowkey ate up with that,” Martin said.

Martin also mentioned that she never gave any background information of her past beforehand.

Another case when Rodarte was spot on with her readings was when it was Martin's birthday. Rodarte read from her deck on how her birthday will go and advised Martin to do certain things and to be more confident. Martin knew she wanted to be more confident and taking that advice made her feel better about herself.

Being influenced by tarot readers on TikTok, Rodarte would like to take this hobby to the next level by creating a side business. As she graduates, she hopes to dedicate this business to helping and connecting with people.