An artist’s depiction of a teddy bear. Graphic courtesy of Gabby Gagnon ‘24.
By Annabelle Mackson ’23
Human Resources Coordinator; Staff Writer
I love stuffed animals, and I’m almost 21 years old. I used to think that this was a sign of immaturity, but recently I’ve made it a point to reject that train of thought, because all it does is cause harm. Adults are conditioned not to seek comfort in the same things they did when they were children. Doing so generally prompts judgment, since onlookers often link it to emotional immaturity. For me, this judgment came from members of my immediate family — it was like a punch in the gut to realize that the people who are meant to understand and care for you the most think less of you because of a trivial interest. Adults have always enjoyed the silent and soft companionship of stuffed toys, and we need to stop hiding it.
In a 2019 article from the Philadelphia Magazine titled: “Millennials! Get Over Your Blankies and Stuffed Animals and Grow Up Already!,” the writer, Sandy Hingston, said that she is “consumed with worry over what will happen when procreation collides with the millennials’ impetus for self-gratification if that’s the proper term to use for sleeping with a stuffed pet.” She expresses her disappointment in the outspokenness of adult stuffed animal owners, saying that “you’d think people of legal drinking age would be ashamed to write in major publications about their puerile habits.” Hingston is the personification of our fears, not only does she hate the fact that adults own stuffed animals, but she’s also upset that we aren’t ashamed of it enough.
This idea that adults who own stuffed animals are somehow infantile is ridiculous. In the United States, the only condition for adulthood is to be over the age of 18. There are no rules or restrictions about what your interests need to be after that particular birthday. Adulthood is the longest period of our lives — we might as well seek out objects to find comfort in, no matter their intended age range. Many adults agree with this sentiment, although they’re not always vocal about it.
In 2017, Build-a-Bear Workshop commissioned a study of over 2,000 adults that found 40 percent of those polled still sleep with a stuffed animal, and more than half currently own one. 72 percent of these respondents planned to hold onto their stuffed animals forever. These people aren’t deviants from the norm — they are the norm, and they’re no less of an adult for having, in essence, a slightly more complex pillow.
There is a scientific basis for why adults can find stuffed animals so comforting, especially today. I noticed an uptick of plushie consumption in myself and my peers after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s not a coincidence. According to healthychildren.org, a parenting website created by the American Academy of Pediatrics, soft things, in general, are considered “transitional objects” in childhood psychology. They help children make the transition from emotional dependence to independence, but adults can find them useful too.
During the pandemic, many have turned back to their childhood toys, or collected new ones, to help them through this stressful and unpredictable time. In 2020, the American Psychological Association did a study of Google searches determining what many of us had confirmed from firsthand experience: the pandemic caused a decline in overall mental health, with anxiety in particular bearing the brunt of the Google statistics. While scientific evidence shows that having a comforting transitional object as an adult is perfectly normal, especially after a global catastrophic event, the societal idea that these individuals are unhealthily dependent on their plushies continues to permeate our brains. While the risk of a debilitating dependence on a transitional object certainly does exist, I find the idea that adults with soft toys are just overgrown repressed children quite offensive. I’m not delusional; I don’t think that having a stuffed manatee will immediately fix my life, but my goodness, does it help.
In 2013, the lead researcher on a series of studies through VU University Amsterdam (VU) told the Association for Psychological Science that “even fleeting and seemingly trivial instances of interpersonal touch may help people to deal more effectively with existential concern.” At the moment, existential concern is something we’re dealing with a lot due to the continued permeation of COVID-19 and the global unrest surrounding climate change.
What I found most interesting in the VU studies was the effect interpersonal touch had on the participants that had low self-esteem. When asked to estimate the price of a teddy bear, those with low self-esteem priced the bear higher than those with higher self-esteem, showing that comforting objects hold a lot more value for people who may be struggling. Additionally, the participants with low self-esteem that received a small touch to the shoulder when given the study’s questionnaire generally reported lower amounts of death-related anxiety than those that did not receive the touch. Through both of these observations, the VU researchers were able to make the connection that inanimate objects can hold the same calming properties as physical touch between individuals. As recognized in an NBC News article from 2017, millions of people in America today struggle with low self-esteem; therefore, an increase in plush toy consumption in adults isn’t really that surprising.
I’m not sugarcoating my problems and I’m not in denial. The fact that something as harmless as a giraffe-shaped pillow can be perceived as evidence of my incompetence is infuriating, more so than the fact that we have to keep asking questions about whether adults should have stuffed toys in the first place. Once we reach the age of 18, we have the autonomy to make the decisions that are best for our well-being, and that includes buying stuffed animals. Even before reaching adulthood, our generation has been instrumental in being more open to talking about mental illness than previous generations, as outlined by the American Psychological Association in 2019. If we can invoke positive change and facilitate openness around such a serious topic, then I believe we can continue to do the same with something as trivial as grown adults owning stuffed animals. To everyone still sleeping with a stuffed animal or displaying them in your dorm room window: do so proudly. We might have a lot of issues, but seeking comfort isn’t one of them.