Why Teens Can't Get Enough of NeeDoh Fidget Toys

By Jiayue Zou
McLean High School

Solving a problem during math class, doing homework or scrolling on TikTok are all moments where Sarah Chung, 17, can be found holding a NeeDoh in her hand.

“Whenever I'm in school, and I’m doing work, and I'm bored, it's just fun to play with it,” Chung said.

This toy has become the next obsession with Google Trends displaying a 5,000 percent increase in Google Shopping and YouTube searches from last year. Evanston Target employee Angel Napp-Cáceres said the store sold out of NeeDohs in one day.

“We left them on one of our tables at the front, and everybody saw them, and we even had a two per person limit,” Napp-Cáceres said. “We started off with around five boxes of 20 to 30 NeeDohs, and we ended up with zero.”

NeeDohs are “dough filled” fidget toys that can be squeezed, pulled and then returned to their original shapes, parent company Schylling said on their website.

Angela Kim, 17, has a large bin of NeeDohs that have kept her busy and helped her decompress.

“Because I'm a student, and I'm constantly sitting at my desk or at school, sometimes I just need something to help me relax or to do something on the side to keep me focused,” Kim said.

Robert Bartholomew is the honorary senior lecturer in psychological medicine at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He said the NeeDoh craze is fueled by social media, specifically influencers.

Nichole Jacklyn is a popular fidget toy creator with 2.22 million subscribers on YouTube.

Other creators such as Hannah Garritt have jumped on the NeeDoh bandwagon in the wake of the toy’s virality.

Digital creators are increasingly leveraged as product marketing tools, Bartholomew said.

“It's become more of an influential part of advertising now than it has in the past,” Bartholomew said. “With each passing year, companies are putting more and more money into influencers when they would have used conventional advertising in the past.”

Pediatric physician Tommy Martin said social media enables rapid circulation of content.

“Whenever kids find any toy that they enjoy, it spreads on social media like wildfire to the point where a lot of these squishies you cannot even find in stores, and you have to buy them from Facebook Marketplace or other places,” Martin said.

Children are particularly impacted by social media influence given their young age, making them a vessel for boosting product popularity by purchasing products they see other people having, Bartholomew said.

“The adolescent brain is really sensitive to peer pressure, and these fads tend to run their course with adolescents,” Bartholomew said. “Part of it is that their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, so they're more likely to make more rash decisions and engage in risky behaviors.”

Schylling’s website describes NeeDohs as a sensory toy that helps relieve stress, but Bartholomew said it is not the primary appeal. Constant showcases of NeeDohs on the internet evoke a strive to conform to that group, Bartholomew said.

“I don't think there's a lot of science behind it in terms of helping people cope with stress,” Bartholomew said. “You'll see that advertised and claimed a lot, but it's more of a status symbol.”

Social media does not only push out products, it also encourages certain behavior in children. People online were microwaving their NeeDohs, making it tempting for children to recreate it, Martin said.

“After the trend went viral, kids were trying it,” Martin said. “When you microwave it, the material on the inside can get to extremely high temperatures, and it can cause these toys to explode. And when they explode, the material on the inside will come out and get on the children and on their skin. And when that happens, it can cause severe burns.”

Martin said injuries can vary depending on what conditions the NeeDoh was put through.

“It depends on how hot they microwave or how long it was microwaved, but it can be as bad as third degree burns, meaning skin grafts,” Martin said.

The 1950s hula hoop fad gradually disappeared when companies were producing large quantities to stock the shelves. Bartholomew said the NeeDoh fad will follow a similar trajectory.

“People in stores couldn't keep up,” Bartholomew said. “There wasn't enough supply for the demand, so people wanted them even more. But when the market gets flooded, they're everywhere, they will lose their appeal.”

About The Author:

Jiayue Zou is an incoming senior at McLean High School, serving as an editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper, The Highlander. Zou recently attended the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute summer program, where she wrote independently researched and wrote this article.

"The Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute was a very eye-opening experience," she told Patch. "It allowed me to engage, learn and receive feedback from professionals in the field. After graduation, I plan on attending university or college to pursue an education in journalism."