What do imaginary friends look like?

[Amberday]

I was watching storks the other day and there's this owl who has an imaginary friend. so it made me ask this question. imaginary friends in comics look like regular humans/ monsters. but what about real life imaginary friends(if that makes sense lol)? to those who have them, do you see them, hear them, how do they look like?

[AnakngTinapay]

I'm not in a (mental) state to have an imaginary friends but I do daydream/fantasize fictional persons too if that counts.

How do they look like?

They look pretty normal. Like a normal person with a flawless personality, a perfect being... randomly varies .

[joe_galindez]

I spent eight months trying to create a tulpa. She was supposed to look like a cross between Cortana and the Matrix digital rain. The idea was that she could communicate by text, and also store text. Kind of like a walking day planner and cheat sheet.

I had to let her fade when she started crawling along the walls.

[Amberday]

I daydream 24/7 I get what you mean. I make anime in my head but i really don't know what it's like if that fictional character is in front of me.

[Amberday]

Interesting, I never heard of imaginary bots. Do you actually see it like having a third eye?

[LordVincent]

Imaginary friends that children have are human most of the time, since humans are what humans relate the most to. However if the kid has a favorite animal or tv show the imaginary friend will often be inspired by that. Sometimes they will be humanoid, like they'll be a person... but they're purple. Or something like that.
Basically, anything a kid can like can become an imaginary friend.

A small addition that only applies for the openminded in this discussion would be imaginary friends that supposedly turn out to be actual ghosts. Dead relatives the child never met and has never seen or heard of, for example.

[Amberday]

I tried having imaginary friends when I was a little kid but never worked and my head hurt so I gave up. I wonder how others "see" them. Ehhh... no ghosts please? I'm reading this in bed

[LordVincent]

Ehhh... no ghosts please? I'm reading this in bed

Haha, sorry! I find them fascinating and consider them a source of hope, really. I guess I'm a weirdo.

It's funny though, do stories/characters count? In that case I think everyone here has imaginary friends.
Also I just realized I lied. I didn't have imaginary friends in the sense that most kids do, but I did "give my puppets life". Had these little stuffed animals that I gave feelings and personalities.

[Amberday]

It's normal to have stories and playing with toys. Somehow they fit in the category of imaginary but it's not what I mean. I've came across a random screenshot of tumblr in a third party site. Some guy confessed that he still has his imaginary friends that he talks to and has no plans of erasing them. He's talking to thin air and it makes me curious how he does it but i read that story a couple of years ago and it'd be extra creepy if I track him out of the blue.

[AlkseeyaKC]

When I was a kid I had the imaginary friend, Stube. I don't know where that name came from. lol He was a boy about my age with brown hair. That's about all I can remember on appearance. We would play together and he would get me into trouble. lol

When we moved, my parents asked if he was coming. I told them he was running after the car. But that was my last memory of him. I guess he didn't make it. =(

[indagold]

I created an imaginary friend when I was a kid who was a blue alien with insect wings, a crystal on its head and had striped pants. I didn't create it because I wanted to but because I saw kids in tv shows had imaginary friends and I thought i'd better try because my childhood was shit and kids hated me and wanted nothing to do with me and it's better than nothing. I knew it wasn't even real or even a legit imaginary friend. I was just a miserable, lonely child.

[joe_galindez]

@Radeou It took effort to see her, although less and less toward the end. Karma was always clearer in my dreams.

@AlkseeyaKC Steuben?

[joannekwan]

I mean, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends had a wide array of designs. But I suppose there are a large percent of kids whose friends are just normal humans, and they wouldn't make for an as visually interesting show.

I guess if you want to see what kids like to imagine and draw, you can go check out Budsies, they're a company that turns drawings into plushes. Just sort out the teen/adult-created designs. xD

Budsies Reviews - Reviews about Budsies custom stuffed animals

[NickRowler]

When I was very very little, I didn't really have many friends, so a lot of the time I would play alone on the playground. I remember hearing the concept of imaginary friends from TV, so I tried to make one. I imagined a little white dog...and the first thing he did was run away. And after that I abandoned the whole concept of imaginary friends.

[AlkseeyaKC]

I don't know what Steuben is?

[joe_galindez]

I mean that "Stube" could've been short for "Steuben."

[375]

....I made a new friend.
"Real or Imaginary?"
....Imaginary.

Maybe you should watch Donnie Darko XD It might help. Or not.

[dawgofdawgness]

I usually picture the embodiment of a voice

whatever that means...

[Tes]

I wasn't a very creative child so my imaginary friend was a combination of Morph (from Treasure Planet) and Flubber - in short: a cute little pink blob that could do all sorts of tricks

[whydocowsfall]

I never had an "imaginary friend" but I had monsters that lived in my house and then various characters that I would literally see like a giant(ish) man who would check on me to see if I was okay when I went to sleep and a lion who was a king that I was very scared of