How Jellycat Plushies Became a Gen Z Obsession
Sales of the British brand’s ultrasoft toys increased almost eightfold from 2013 to 2022.
Illustration: Shira Inbar for Bloomberg Businessweek
In June the influencer Spencer Barbosa posted a TikTok introducing her roughly 10 million followers to what she called her family. “The family!” Barbosa said in the video, which now has more than 110,000 likes and almost 500 comments. Faux-embarrassed, she corrected herself: “The collection.”
One by one, Barbosa trotted out more than a dozen Jellycats—a brand of stuffed toys—while commenting with self-deprecating humor. Among her plush menagerie were two elephants, a narwhal, a panda, a mammoth, plus a coffee cup and a cloud. “It’s literally insane,” Barbosa said in the video. “I’m 21—why do I sleep with 14 stuffed animals?”