In 2024, a K-Pop star posted a photo of her Louis Vuitton bag adorned with several keychains, one of which was a plush toy monster, known as Labubu. Other celebrities followed suit, and the quirky, collectible characters became a worldwide phenomenon that launched the toy manufacturer Pop Mart to a market cap of $40 billion.
Labubu has become the trendiest new toy in a long time. They’re highly collectible, driving sales as customers seek out special colors or limited-edition releases. The allure of the “blind box” format, where buyers can’t see what keychain or character they received until after they’ve purchased the box, leads to over-purchasing and the suspense of discovery. Social media has also boosted the toy’s popularity, as videos of people unboxing their Labubus consistently go viral on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Highly sought-after figurines can rake in as much as $700 apiece on the resale market, meaning that they’ve transcended from novelty to status symbol.
Pop Mart is a toy company, but their products aren’t aimed at children. Rather, they’re aimed at social media-savvy millennials and Gen Z. The combination of scarcity and demand has allowed Pop Mart’s revenue to increase by 1200 percent in the past year. It shows how many young adults are obsessed with the product.
Our new generation of adults has become deeply unserious. In the past 50 years, the marriage rate in the U.S. has declined by almost 60 percent. The birth rate has also been consistently dropping in the U.S., as it declines by nearly 2 percent annually. Commitment has been steadily falling out of fashion for these younger generations. When adjusted for inflation, average annual wages have risen steadily since 2000. Americans have moved away from the responsibilities of marriage and family life, but have gained more disposable income.
The result is a generation willing to blow their money on overpriced keychains rather than on their households. Labubus are a symptom of the culture’s sickness, as it is increasingly removing the importance of adulthood in favor of dwelling on childishness.
Toys are only a small portion of this social regression. The former star of the children’s show Blues Clues, Steve Burns, recently announced that he is launching an adult-oriented podcast. Steve reemerged on TikTok several years ago, with his posts gaining millions of views and likes as he would pretend to “listen” to viewers by silently nodding at an empty screen. These videos may have been intended to be reassuring, but they showed how lonely and immature his adult audience had become. His new podcast is only further confirmation that these viewers aren’t willing to move past their childhood.
After the children’s app Musical.ly became TikTok, the viral dance challenges for kids became popular among adults. About 32 percent of America’s adult population is active on TikTok. The dance trends are a huge part of the app’s culture, with trending videos easily receiving millions of views. Countless adults are eager to participate, spending hours learning complex dance routines at the hope of going viral.
Kids’ cartoons from the 2000s such as Regular Show and Powerpuff Girls have been announced to be returning with themes only appropriate for adult audiences. Additionally, the popularity of adult animated series like Rick and Morty and Smiling Friends have normalized extremely vulgar humor under the mask of animation. Young adults are constantly consuming media that relies on their inability to grow up, and this effective strategy can be measured in viral videos, television ratings, and Pop Mart’s massive profit margin.
This obsession with immaturity is far more dangerous than nostalgia. Baby Boomers and Gen X moved out of their childhood obsessions and took on the responsibilities of maturity. At a comparable age, 40 percent of Gen X adults lived with a spouse and a child, while only 30 percent of millennials could say the same.
American culture has chipped away at the traditional progression out of juvenility. The coming-of-age process has been subdued in favor of chasing trendy Labubus and rewatching children’s television shows. Young people have been told that their comfort should always be their priority, and this has devolved into unwavering selfishness. The supposedly cute Labubus are a sinister sign that a culture that can’t mature may be doomed to fail.