Stuffed animals are not just for children any more – adults are also clamouring for squishy friends and weighted plushies.
Marina Khidekel, a health journalist and founder of Hugimals, is one of these adults. She said she created Hugimals, a line of weighted stuffed animals designed to relieve stress and promote sleep, in part for herself. Squishies Toy
A year after the brand’s launch, Khidekel says more than 50 per cent of Hugimals’s customers are adults. They are either buying the stuffed animals for themselves – using them to alleviate anxiety and help with their sleep – or gifting them to adult friends or family members.
Squishmallows and Jellycats, two other popular plush toy brands, have seen a similar spike in interest among adults since the pandemic. Squishmallows – rotund, squishy toys with smiling faces – became the top-selling toy in the United States and Canada last year, according to market research firm Circana.
For London-based toy brand Jellycats, the brand’s Amuseable line, which features stuffed coffee cups, plants and various fruits, is a big draw for adults.
Stuffed animals are not simply toys used for joy and amusement, though. People are turning to them to help cope with anxiety, stress, grief and isolation.
While the positive effects of stuffed animals are still being researched, some studies have found that weighted blankets and cosy toys can reduce anxiety.
Some people have also used them to cope with loss. After Marcella Johnson lost her fourth baby, she found comfort in holding weighted items and realised other grieving mothers did the same as well.
This experience led her to create the Comfort Club, a weighted teddy bear designed for people coping with loss.
That is partly what Khidekel’s Hugimals are designed to do. Weighing 2kg (4.5lbs), these stuffed animals are designed to replicate a “calming, hugging you back” effect, she says.
Since using her Hugimals, she has read reviews of her product and heard from customers who say the stuffed animals have helped with their anxiety and sleep.
Gorilla Squeeze Toy “Reading reviews from adults moves me so much, because I know how much Hugimals help relieve my own stress and fall asleep easier,” she says.