The Importance of Creative Inner Child Hobbies

Adulthood is a fast-paced, stressful world. It can make us crave the days of our childhood when we felt our minds were clearer, and our lives easier. This is one of the many reasons why I’ve adopted creative inner child hobbies into my daily life. When I talk about these activities, I'm referring to the hobbies we once loved as kids, the ones that made us excited to learn, that we loved to do when we got home from school—the activities that provided us with pure, innocent joy. I think we should all rediscover these activities as adults and incorporate them into our routines. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hectic world of careers, relationships, and adult stresses that we can forget to slow down and make time for the ‘silly’ activities that once brought us hours of fun.

Over the last few years, there has been a mass resurgence of people rediscovering their long-lost hobbies and falling back in love with them. I think two key events have driven this: COVID-19 and the Taylor Swift Eras Tour.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown left most people with a lot more time on their hands. As Plato once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention” — or in this case boredom sparked the revival of fun hobbies. On social media, we saw masses of people bake, complete silly challenges in their gardens, and dance around their living rooms. I think this caused people to rediscover the things that once brought them joy. Now, post-lockdown, they’re holding onto these rekindled hobbies for the happiness they bring.

Secondly, I think the recent social media hype around creative inner child hobbies has been caused by Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Whether you’re a fan or not, there’s no denying her immense global impact. With this tour, fans reconnected with their inner child by making beaded friendship bracelets to wear and trade at concerts. I think this is what has contributed to the influx of people showcasing nostalgic hobbies on social media. My TikTok and Instagram feeds are now full of bracelets, journaling, and every creative hobby imaginable.

On a personal level, the idea of these creative inner child hobbies really excite me because of how much they have helped me over the last few years. When I moved from Northern Ireland to England for university in 2022, I struggled during times when I was alone in my accommodation. This was especially true when I wasn’t in class or out with my new friends. During this time, in those quiet moments, I started taking up what I used to call ‘silly little’ hobbies. I have always been creative, but during my STEM-based degree, I missed having an outlet. So, one day, I decided to use an empty notebook to start journaling in. In this little grey book, I filled it with scrapbooking pages, memories, prompts, and entries. It ended up doubling in size with the elastic band barely keeping it shut. This is what started my journey with creative, inner child hobbies.

Having this creative outlet helped me in so many ways. It allowed me to get to know myself and gave me a form of escapism in my tiny university bedroom. It also helped me fall back in love with creativity.

After I left university to pursue a creative career through an apprenticeship, I made it a priority to continue my creative hobbies. It was especially important to have a release from my long 12-hour days commuting from Liverpool to Manchester. I also knew it would help clear my mind. It would also allow me to separate creative work from personal creativity. Since starting my role in April, I have continued journaling, started making friendship bracelets, began teaching myself graphic design, and discovered that I love pottery painting (even if I am not the best at it).

These hobbies have helped me to reconnect with myself, unwind after stressful days, discover new creators, and given me another passion outside of my career. But there are so many more benefits to rediscovering your inner child hobbies, from meeting new people to simply creating cool things and carving out some personal time.

Are you looking for some inspiration for inner child hobbies? Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of ones that sound fun:

-       Painting: this doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just paint what you feel like painting

-       Drawing: again, this doesn’t have to be perfect - even doodling can count as drawing

-       Colouring: put on some music, or have your comfort show in the background while you focus on colouring a picture or pattern

-       Scrapbooking: creating pages of memories to look back on later

-       Journaling: just writing or doodling whatever is on your mind 

-       Lego: there are so many amazing Lego sets 

-       Jewellery making: channel your inner Swiftie and make a friendship bracelet

-       Playing with clay: making silly characters or useful things

-       Puzzles: this has been a more recent one I’ve seen on social media

-       Collecting stuffed animals/trinkets: Jellycats, Miffy, and vintage pins are personal favourites of mine 

-       Watching cartoons: transport yourself back in time to Saturday mornings with your favourite cartoons.

-       Baking: obviously the best part is getting to eat your treats after you're done

-       Dancing around to your guilty pleasure songs: this has been proven to relieve stress

-       Loom bands (This one, in particular, is a big throwback): so easy and fun to make!

I hope that this blog has inspired you to rediscover a forgotten hobby from your childhood and have some fun with it!

 Jenny Clynes, Cohort 43 Content Creator Apprentice at List & Found