Squishmallows are this generation's Beanie Babies

I was born in 1990, so it may not come as a shock that during my elementary school years, collecting TY beanie babies was one of my main focuses in life. I'm not sure exactly why TY Beanie Babies became so popular maybe it was that they all had names, birthdates, and poems on their cute heart-shaped tags. For one reason or another, they became the toy most everyone wanted. I remember how excited I was when I counted my collection and discovered that I had 100 of the cute plush toys in my collection. As with most popular toys, the hype eventually died down, and their popularity faded. I even eventually got rid of my collection, but I have been working to build it up again and I probably have even more Beanie Babies than I use to have. I'm not sure exactly when I became aware of Squishmallows but the hype around them definitely reminds me of the TY Beanie Baby hype and it's refreshing to see a new generation focusing on something fun and wholesome again. I know I sound like an old person when I say this, but there is an abundant supply of things for kids to worry about in today's broken world. As someone who worked with children, it is easy to feel like kids in today's world do not get to experience the joy and innocence of childhood that previous generations did. A quick Google search informed me that Squishmallows became popular through social media during 2020. It makes sense that people were looking for some comfort during that year, and it is very easy to see why they became popular during that time. However, their popularity seems to be sticking around for now as far as I can tell. I work at a store that sells them, and I love seeing kids of all ages get excited about them. We have a ton of them in stock. Just like how stores back in the 90s would have shelves full of TY Beanie Babies. There is no denying how cute Squishmallows are. Similar to TY Beanie Babies, Squishmallows have names and pomes inside their tags. This gives each plush their own personality, and it is fun to try to find one that shares your interests job or even name. This one simple thing sets plush toys like this apart from the normal everyday stuffed animals. If for some weird reason I ever had a toy company, I would work to give each toy its own back story and personality because it is easy to see that toy buyers want that. I love how popular these toys are. Kids today have it harder than my generation did, and I'm not afraid to admit that. It's refreshing to see kids excited about toys again, and I want to thank Squishmellows for helping this generation through the year of 2020 and beyond. Collecting toys is a great hobby for any age, and I'm glad that the tradition of collecting cute plush toys is alive and well. Collecting is a great hobby but you have to have something that you are interested in collecting first. There is something so charming about toys like TY Beanie Babies and Squishmallows that makes it easy for people to want to collect them. As someone who has been collecting for awhile it may be a good idea for me to give some advice to the new generation of toy collectors. My advice to this new generation of plush collectors is this. Have fun, collect as many as you can, and be very proud of your collection. However, don't let anyone tell you that collecting popular stuffed toys is a good investment and will pay for your house someday. Ask any 90s kid about that, and you will probably get more information than you ever wanted to hear. I hope that the popularity of Squishmellows stays around for a very long time and that the next generation has something similar to collect.