Don’t stop kidding around: How adults are reclaiming play

So no one told you life was gonna be this way? Enter kidulting and the modern landscape of joy, toys and play. Brittany Golob investigates the rise of kidulting.

It’s been 10 years since Pokémon GO’s initial release in 2016. That July, the long-beloved brand entered a new phase. It combined augmented reality with digital gaming and nostalgia, hitting the sweet spot for a wave of millennial ‘kidults’ desperate for a digital community.

It was an overnight success. It brought a renewed sense of play and fun to adults through a nostalgic brand reminiscent of their childhoods. It might not have been the first kidulting hero, but it changed the way the digital generation perceived play, community, nostalgia and even toys.

Kidulting is, according to Ella Britton, strategy director at the Behave Consultancy, “A natural reaction to the perma-crisis that’s going on in society for various psychological and behavioural reasons.”

And it’s not entirely new. The pandemic saw massive amounts of interest in things like Lego, puzzles, colouring books, Warhammer games, collectibles and more broadly: play. And even before that, the Beanie Baby craze took the kids and the adults of the ’90s by storm. Disney has long cornered the market on nostalgia-fuelled experiences for kids and adults. It offers everything from restaurants to women’s fashion lines to cruise experiences to housing developments. Fandoms like Star Wars and Harry Potter have captured the imaginations of kids and adults alike.

But in today’s always-on social media landscape, kidulting has reached new heights. It’s where the need for a modern community meets a desire for offline joy and play, with a small dose of social media performance added into the mix. And it scratches the itch that Britton points out, the desire to switch off from the cost-of-living crisis, the global political landscape, the environmental collapse, global conflicts, all the challenges and horrors of modern life.

It lets grown-ups be kids again. And in doing so, it lets them be themselves again.

Why adults are embracing play

And while it’s most likely to be gen Z and millennials who are embracing kidulting, older generations are finding ways to let out their inner child as well. Lego – a perennial favourite – is incredibly popular with 18-44 year-olds, but 20% of British 45-54 year-olds also buy Lego sets, according to strategy consultancy Yonder.

Laura Payten, partner at Yonder, says, “I think that’s due to the normalisation that’s being driven from younger cohorts.” She adds that kidulting is a kind of pushback against the challenges people of all ages are having at achieving the ‘expected’ level-ups in adult life. “It’s a bit of a rebellion against those traditional adult pathways which aren’t as easy to attain anymore.”

Ben Essen, global chief strategy officer at Iris, says that kidulting should be treated with more than flippancy, by any demographic. It’s a socially acceptable – and undeniably growing – intrinsic part of modern life. “It captures a drive to reclaim the parts of childhood that felt safe and grounding. Adult life right now is relentless – economic chaos, climate anxiety and political instability. People are responding by grabbing moments of lightness wherever they can,” he says.

Britton agrees, “It taps into the treat economy and something called the ‘lipstick effect,’ where people physically cannot buy houses, cars, big purchases because we do not have the resources. So people who are at the life stage where they should be buying these bigger ticket items physically cannot afford to do so anymore. What they’re doing is rewarding themselves in different ways.”

The recent craze around the Starbucks ‘Bearista’ cup is just one example of a perfectly timed and targeted product that captured the imagination of adults, tapped into a sense of nostalgia – but added in the decidedly adult setting of coffee purchasing – and delivered on the ‘little treat’ promise.

“Kidults aren’t buying products per se. They’re buying emotional outcomes. Curiosity instead of boredom. Comfort instead of stress. Belonging instead of isolation. Pride instead of drift. Delight instead of a grey routine,” says Aaron Shields, executive director of experience strategy EMEA at Landor.

A sense of community

Belonging is another huge driver in building buzz around kidulting brands and products. Payten points to Warhammer, which has always been a niche, but undeniably popular, brand among gamers. She says it’s not just about the experience or the product, but the community that is involved in playing Warhammer. That psychology is prevalent in almost all kidulting trends today.

The community in question might be a tangible one, like the people you’d meet at a blacksmithing experience or on a Disney cruise. But it might be a virtual one, that you’d signal you are part of by posting a picture of your Labubu on social media, or wearing your Jellycat Amuseable keyring proudly on your handbag on public transport. “It’s signalling,” says Payten. “It’s saying to the world, ‘This is who I am.’”

Britton says there’s another layer of the psychology at play as well. Beyond simple nostalgia or community engagement, kidulting allows adults to feel like they’re back in a time and place in which they are psychologically safe. If the world is a challenge, and adulting is tough, then why not rush to McDonald’s and grab the latest Squishmallow Happy Meal toy? Why not Build-A-Bear?

Moreover, there’s the added fun of collecting something that is limited or exclusive. Labubu took the world by storm because of its blind box model and its limited releases. Lego’s Minifigures have tapped into a similar psychology around scarcity. A collector feels a compulsion to complete the set. To find the missing piece. And so they drive the craze.

For brands that are not in the toy space, or don’t have a natural route to tapping into the kidulting trend, Payten says, “The idea of scarcity, limited editions, collabs can give you permission to play.” Britton adds that a collaboration should feel natural and authentic, but lend brands the authority to tap into nostalgia and play.

But if the past is any warning, it’s that trends can end and bubbles can burst; Beanie Babies are unfortunately not worth what Millennials were promised in the 1990s. But brands hoping to capture some of the magic of kidulting can do so in a way that is sustainable and authentic.

Changing with the times

Shields says brands should evolve with their audiences. Lego is one that does this incredibly effectively, with toys targeted at everyone from babies to kidults to seniors. He adds, “Pokémon is proof that play doesn’t disappear. It just changes format. Pokémon is a rare cultural machine that doesn’t ‘lose’ fans, it evolves with them. Different audiences can be brought in at any time from kids to parents to collectors. Nostalgia becomes collecting, collecting becomes community, community becomes identity.”

Britton agrees, “Lego is constantly adapting with its audience. It’s growing. It’s constantly feeding the next generation of people who want to play with Lego, but also following the cohort of people who have always played with Lego. They’re feeding imagination all the way through.”

That kind of brand evolution can be challenging. Britton points to Claire’s, the once-beloved accessories brand now fallen into administration. It was once the hub of tween mall life and could have, she argues, evolved to become a modern, experience-driven brand that captures nostalgia, social cachet and social media cool. Instead it stagnated.

Crocs is one brand that found itself facing cultural irrelevance before reinventing its brand for modern life. Instead of being relegated to the allotment or the restaurant kitchen, Crocs found a new way to engage with consumers of all ages through customisation, personalisation and, effectively, play. Its line of charms and gems allows consumers to create their own shoe, signalling to the world their affiliations and their personality. It allows people to say ‘this is who I am,’ just by wearing jazzed-up shoes.

And, after years of middling stock performance and a low of 16.99 in 2020, it found its cool again. Now it trades fairly consistently above the 80 mark.

Brands can also embrace experiences. Jellycat is the darling of the modern kidulting trend, but it isn’t resting on its laurels. It has seven global experience offers like the Jellycat Fish & Chips cafe in Selfridges, complete with bespoke food Amuseables, or the Jellycat Ski Club in Los Angeles, which brought exclusive products and wintry joy to LA’s Grove shopping centre.

A balancing act

But the challenge remains for brands to expand and grow in such a way that allows for this kind of evolution, without becoming so stretched they lose their identity. And brands often have to tread the fine line of engaging both kids and adults at once.

Britton says, “I think the biggest tension is how do you communicate something to hugely different demographics without alienating one or the other? It’s all about storytelling. It’s just a communication strategy. You have a communication strategy that has a surface element and then you've got a deeper element, and those two things appeal to different ages and people.”

Pokémon and Lego have proven this can be done. But so too has Harry Potter. “What is fascinating in the Harry Potter model is the way in which it creates permission and deep emotional equity over time. From a brand equity perspective, Harry Potter is unequivocally a phenomenon – and it has ‘grown up’ with its audience, creating new meaning through new platforms,” says Joe Stubbs, VP of global brand and marketing director at Interbrand.

Experts agree that finding a balance between nostalgia, joy and authenticity is where brands can spark the imaginations of the modern kidult. Those brands not naturally in the toy or play space may have to think laterally and work in partnership. But they’re not necessarily out of the game entirely. The key thing to ensure is that brands are built on robust foundations, with resilient communications strategies in place and a true sense of who they are for their audiences before engaging.

And, adds Essen, “For brands, the question isn’t ‘Should we do this?’ It’s, ‘How do we create a moment of joy that feels authentic to us?’ It might be design, it might be a story or it might be a physical experience. In a heavy world, brands that offer a bit of lightness will stand out. People aren't craving more stuff. They are craving moments that make them feel okay, even if just for a second. And there’s nothing childish about that.”

 

This article was taken from Transform magazine Q1, 2026. You can subscribe to the print edition here.