From Beanie Babies to viral toys, why the rise of adult collectibles may signal a deeper cultural immaturity.
(Photo: Unsplash)I am a proud ’90s kid, and when I think about my childhood, there is one trend that stands out above the rest.
Beanie Babies.
I still remember the thrill of convincing my mom to fork out another seven dollars. A small animal, filled with beans, legitimized by a TY tag, would soon be mine. Not only were they cute, but they came with their own name, poem and the false promise that one day, if I sold them, I’d become a millionaire.
The Beanie Baby obsession made its mark on the world thirty years ago, but what is old eventually becomes new again. Today, the Labubu doll, a new collectible, has taken the world by storm. In fact, KDVR reported recently that a second and third Labubu store were coming to Denver International Airport (DIA) in December and January. Whether you find this fad charming, troubling or irrelevant, its global popularity deserves examination. The success of these figurines, especially when compared to the Beanie Baby craze, offers us a snapshot of our society’s health and invites us to a moment of honest self-reflection.
The Labubu doll is a plush toy based on a character of the same name in the illustrated series, The Monsters. Known for its big eyes, very wide smile and small, sharp teeth, it’s somehow ugly and cute simultaneously. In 2019, the company Popmart began building the Labubu brand, and in 2024 and 2025, the doll became a viral success, bringing in over a billion dollars in earnings.
Labubu and its predecessor he much in common. For example, both companies experienced what seemed like overnight popularity, used the scarcity effect to drive sales through limited releases and saw an entire culture develop around the toys.
The obvious difference between these two items is, of course, social media. Beanie Babies became popular through storefronts, word of mouth and magazines, whereas Labubus owe their viral success to the almighty algorithm. Not only do people buy the product, but they also spend hours consuming content as influencers unbox their dolls, dress them up and showcase their collections.
But underneath the distinction of decades of technological development lies another, less clear, yet more important difference: the erage age of the product’s owner. In 1997, the small stuffed animals were mainly going home with parents to reside in the rooms of children between the ages of five and twelve. Today, although young children do own Labubu dolls, they are most popular with adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty.
What Labubus Say About the State of the CultureThis raises a few unoidable questions: What does it say about a culture when its most popular toys belong mainly to adults? What impact should this information he on those who he faith in God?
It’s no secret that, by many measures, we are less happy than we were in the 1990s. Factors such as smartphones, the dark side of social media, years of economic uncertainty and deep political fragmentation he clouded the culture with a sense of despair. An environment of anxiety and cynicism, combined with an overarching message that prioritizes self-focus and self-actualization at all costs, has led two generations, Millennials and Gen Z, to believe that happiness is primarily found through self-interest.
The result is increasingly evident. My generation and the one following it are struggling to lee childhood behind. We may appear like adults, but our interests, thoughts and actions never matured past adolescence or childhood.
Maturity is Part of God’s DesignIn the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon offers us age-old wisdom, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under Heen.” When God created the world, he did so by establishing distinctions, boundaries and seasons. Night is different from day. There is a boundary between water and land. Time exists, so that as creation moves through it, maturity occurs. Over time, seeds develop into full-grown plants, and baby animals mature into adulthood.
Humans are meant to follow the same pattern. Throughout our lives, we are meant to move through separate seasons. Each serves a purpose for a time but is ultimately meant to enable us to reach physical and spiritual maturity.
Childhood is a beautiful season of life, but children are inherently selfish, as they depend on others for their safety and growth. Their carefree self-centeredness gives them the space to wonder and imagine, which enables them to learn about the world and begin their journey toward adulthood. Wild imaginations, pretend play and rooms filled with toys are not frivolous; they reveal the truth about what a child is meant to do within God’s created order.
But childhood, and its self-centered nature, was never meant to be a destination. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I ge up childish ways.”
God created us to lee childhood behind, to abandon the self-centered worldview and all that comes with it. He still calls us to put our faith and trust in him with childlike dependence, but through maturity, he expands our hearts, renews our minds and enables us to live lives of service, laying them down as a gift for the sake of others. As Pope St. John Paul II reminds us, echoing Gaudium et Spes 24, “man only finds himself in the sincere gift of self.” It is only through maturity that we become capable of such acts, only through growth that we learn to live lives of virtue which ultimately leads to our true happiness and society’s flourishing.
The popularity of Labubus among adults highlights the awkwardness and disorder that arise when large numbers of people refuse to mature. Alleged adults he rejected the invitation to mature and give themselves to eternal and transcendent things such as God, marriage, children and virtue. Instead, they are left to worry mainly about themselves, embracing small, meaningless trinkets with deep passion and loyalty. In clinging to childhood indefinitely, they trade true growth and joy for hollow distractions, leing both themselves and the culture around them shallow and impoverished.
Well-adjusted adults are not devoid of joy and fun, nor are they cut off from the nostalgia of childhood. The difference is that their joy is tempered by responsibility, their play is ordered toward virtue, and their freedom is paired with generosity. They can revisit childhood, but not by returning to their own; rather, through the eyes of their children. When we give ourselves to others through marriage and parenthood, distinctly adult things, the Lord restores the sweet joys of childhood — only now they are richer, seen through the lens of life-giving love.
And so, herein lies the opportunity for self-reflection. It’s easy to look out at the world and make judgments. It’s more difficult to face our own immaturity or brokenness. For better or worse, society is what it is. But we he a choice. The world may encourage us to reject adulthood and give ourselves to what is trite and meaningless instead of what is eternal. God, however, invites us to do the opposite.
What childish ways might be keeping you from reaching maturity?
How might lingering immaturity in your heart be keeping you from true happiness and fulfillment?
Pray about it, lay these things down and live fully in accordance with God’s design. You won’t regret it.