I have yet to outgrow stuffed animals. Why should I?

By Jadyn Miyahira, Staff Writer

Stuffed animals are quintessentially owned by children, but what about teenagers? What about adolescence causes others to expect us to not care about them? Throughout all forms of media, teenagers are depicted as this angsty generation that could never care about little stuffed creatures. But however moody we could be, no one should be too old to appreciate them! 

I have yet to hit the moment when I outgrow stuffed animals and much of my collection still sits in my room. A few years ago, I would have been wildly embarrassed to show anyone my accumulation, but why? I now realize that the stigma that surrounds teens with stuffed animals is highly unjustifiable and that they are actually extraordinarily beneficial to our mental wellbeing. I, along with many other Samo students such as Tara Sung (’22), share the same thoughts. 

“Stuffed animals are important because they can really bring you back to the simple life of being a kid and they’re also very sentimental and sweet gifts. And to be honest, they look really cool when you arrange them nicely on your bed,” Sung said. 

Stuffed animals play a huge role in people’s psychology. Often kids will personify their stuffed animals to take on personalities of their own. These personalities usually originate from the part of a kid’s psyche that tells them that everything will be okay as a way of subconsciously counteracting the negative self-talk that we all experience. 

An English psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicot, studied a young boy in the 1960s who had an unparalleled relationship with his stuffed rabbit. He had abusive parents and every night he would talk to his rabbit and cry to it. What interested Winnicot was that the boy would speak to the rabbit as if its personality wasn’t completely synthesized in his head. Thus, Winnicot concluded that the boy was communicating to one side of himself through his stuffed animal with benevolence and grace to the side of himself that needed it. 

Not only do they help balance the scales of the inner psyche, but stuffed animals are also a common medium used in the process of healing, both mentally and physically. Similar to therapy animals, they can bring cheerful energy to a space that may be nerve wracking or frightening. Hospital gift shops will often have a large selection of stuffed animals available. Especially in pediatric hospitals, something as simple as a stuffed bear has been proven to mitigate feelings of anxiety in their patients and ultimately lead to a better response to a procedure. Students should not be afraid to take advantage of this. Before a big final, squeezing your Pillow Pet may be more profitable than you think.

Even after we’ve moved past the stage of dependency on our stuffed animals, they still carry a purpose. They still contain memories and textures that have the power to bring us back to certain moments that defined our childhood. That’s enough for anyone, of any age, to maintain their respect for their stuffed animals.