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A woman named Stella purchased her first Jellycat soft toy in the midst of a time of unemployment during the global health crisis. Encouraged by an acquaintance's enthusiasm for these UK-created creatures, her interest was fully ignited when she saw an adorable gingerbread cottage design featured on a popular social networking app.

While The Christmas holiday is not widely celebrated across China, serving more as a retail occasion than a cultural tradition, the sight of gingerbread houses resonated to Stella. "The festival doesn't hold a lot to me... However, I have always loved the look of gingerbread houses," she remarks. This led her to request a friend from her hometown to purchase the item on her behalf.

That acquisition took place in 2021, right as the brand was on the cusp to achieve enormous success in China and beyond. "Everyone felt anxious, and no-one knew what was going to happen," recalls Stella, who picked up a routine of petting and hugging her plushies for comfort throughout a difficult period. Living in Beijing, which experienced some of the strictest lockdowns globally, she passed a great deal of time indoors.

Now aged 32 with a new job as a tourism sector professional, Stella continues to grow her collection. Her collection has reached approximately 120 items, representing a cost of about 36,000 yuan. "As an adult, you have many things you can't share with others... and the troubles we encounter are a lot more complicated than before," she says with a sigh. "The plushies assist me in regulate my emotions."

Originally created for children, these squishy toys have transformed into an international phenomenon, particularly within China where an increasingly disenchanted youth demographic has been turning to them for emotional support.

Understanding the Kidults

Her gingerbread cottage plushie is part of their "Amuseable" series, a range of characters featuring small faces modelled after commonplace items, ranging from bathroom tissue and boiled eggs. These toys are considered the "breakout products" that "resonate with a wide Gen-Z and millennial demographic" around the world, according to industry analysts.

Their growing appeal "may have something to do with a desire for companionship," suggest cultural commentators. While it's hard to say for sure whether the introduction of the now-iconic Amuseable line back in 2018 was a deliberate strategy to target the young adult market, companies in the sector increasingly must find new markets due to falling fertility rates in many countries.

Jellycat made its foray into China as early as 2015. Having laid significant "foundation", the toy maker was well-positioned to capture "the tone of the pandemic"—when people sought solace amid heightened uncertainty—and built on its early momentum there, according to industry experts.

Its fame was also propelled by creative pop-up experiences. These in-store events often featured a selection of limited-edition "food" products. Many enthusiasts would film themselves interacting and share the videos online.

Localisation proved to be a core approach. For instance, customers were able to buy stuffed toy versions of traditional UK dishes such as fish and chips during a temporary shop in London. Conversely, items like teapot and teacup plushies were featured at exclusive outlets in Beijing and Shanghai the previous year.

In 2024, the UK-based firm's revenue reportedly rose significantly to reach an impressive sum. During that timeframe, it sold roughly $117 million worth of its products to Chinese consumers on major e-commerce platforms, per market intelligence estimates.

This growth parallels a wider boom within China's collectible toy sector among young adults seeking emotional comfort and connection. Overall sales of collectable toys in China are expected to exceed 110 billion yuan annually, as per a recent analysis.

The runaway popularity of brands like Labubu, elf-inspired dolls from domestic company Pop Mart, highlights the market's increasing demand towards designer collectibles. The so-called "kidult" phenomenon isn't unique to China; young adults globally are starting to re-evaluate "outdated understandings of what it means to be an adult," observe cultural experts.

Particularly, especially the aubergine character—affectionately dubbed "the big boss" in China—have spawned numerous memes, with many expressing frustrations regarding adult life. On social media, the "aubergine boss" tag is a space where fans sketch various emotive faces on the plushie, showing it in different states from drinking to fake-smiling.

As an illustration, a marketing professional from Hong Kong, Wendy Hui, personalized her eggplant Amuseable by drawing bags around its eyes and putting a pair of glasses on the toy. She posted an image on a social platform with the caption: "The mood of employees on Monday." "I kept working at home even during my days off," she explains. "I just wanted to express the level of exhaustion I was."

In this way, the brand has emerged as an unexpected, light-hearted channel for young Chinese to air their grievances over a slowing economy, in which hard work no longer ensure commensurate rewards. Amid strict content regulation, digital spaces have become an important, if not the only, arena for such conversations.

Its regular releases of limited-edition designs and the retirement of older designs—an approach sometimes referred to as "scarcity marketing" in China—has further fueled {