Is this craze just harmless fun? With adults spending hundreds of pounds on collecting soft toys, criminal gangs have started to target the shops that sell them.
Thieves nab Jellycats amid toy fever
Is this craze just harmless fun? With adults spending hundreds of pounds on collecting soft toys, criminal gangs have started to target the shops that sell them.
Organised crime gangs have started targeting soft toys to sell online. They are stealing Jellycats, after the brand went viral on social media. On TikTok, videos tagged #Plushies have been viewed around eight billion times.
Over a quarter of sales come from "kidults" - people aged 12 and above, a trend which began during the pandemic.
For some, Jellycats are a bit of fun. For others, they are a source of comfort and even support.
Critics say that some MillennialsPeople who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century. and Gen ZShort for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s. seem to be choosing to put off growing up, by not leaving home, becoming financially independent, or starting their own families.
In Britain, the medianThe median is the middle point in a group of numbers: half of the numbers are smaller than the median and half are larger. age for a first marriage is 33 for men and 31 for women - 10 years older than in the early 1960s.
A love of plushies might be linked to this.
But even if a trend is silly or a bit embarrassing, that does not make it wrong. Stealing from toy shops is obviously a crime, but we should not condemn adults for owning stuffed toys.
Is this craze just harmless fun?
Yes! People should be free to collect whatever they want. Adults spending hundreds on stuffed toys might be strange, but they should not be blamed for criminal gangs targeting toy shops.
No! Adult life may be hard, but queuing up to buy a stuffed toilet roll toy is not the solution.
Millennials - People who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century.
Gen Z - Short for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Median - The median is the middle point in a group of numbers: half of the numbers are smaller than the median and half are larger.
Thieves nab Jellycats amid toy fever

Glossary
Millennials - People who reached adulthood in the early 21st Century.
Gen Z - Short for Generation Z, meaning people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Median - The median is the middle point in a group of numbers: half of the numbers are smaller than the median and half are larger.