From blacksmithing to needlepoint, young people are embracing ‘grandma hobbies’

LOS ANGELES– At 23, Emma MacTaggart was already noticing how scarce her free time was – and how rarely it was screen-free.

She worked long hours at an investment bank, and once she could finally log off after work, she would turn to her phone. Together with her roommates, she decided to look for a hobby that would replace this habit. They became “addicted” to embroidery, she said, a practice she had briefly learned from parents as a child but had not adopted in years. And since then, she hasn’t looked back.

“It was a really therapeutic way to distract yourself from work or stress, but also to just do something with your hands instead of doom scrolling,” she said. “We became completely obsessed.”

MacTaggart is part of a crowd of young people who are turning to analog hobbies and activities to escape technology and reconnect with childlike creativity and exploration. Ironically, this analog movement was galvanized by its trend on social media.

Some of these hobbies—knitting, gardening, and, of course, sewing—have been referred to online as “grandma’s hobbies,” referring to the older demographic often associated with them. But many other offline, tactile hobbies, like pottery, origami, and even blacksmithing, have recently gained traction online among Gen Z and millennials.

A younger population took up these hobbies in 2020, when the pandemic left many with more free time. But “grandma’s hobbies” have persisted beyond a pandemic fad, and some appear to be gaining popularity online.

Although she said she may not consider herself a crafty person, MacTaggart, now 26, founded the embroidery business What’s the Stitch and runs popular social media profiles of the same name. After seeing growing interest in her content, she began growing her business and now sells embroidery canvases, accessories and digital designs. The skill MacTaggart puts into his creations is a touch of cheeky humor and, at times, profanity.

“It’s such a historically buttoned-up profession, so it’s fun to give it a youthful twist,” she said.

Jaime Kurtz, a psychology professor at James Madison University whose research focuses on happiness, said many of these activities can also help reduce anxiety and stress and provide a sense of accomplishment because they require focus and can be a challenge.

“Hobbies are really important, and a lot of us have lost them, or we just don’t prioritize them enough, or we think we’re too busy,” Kurtz said. “But just finding a little time to dedicate to that kind of thing is a very wise use of time.”

Clara Sherman, who co-founded the company So Bam Fun to “reinvigorate” the game of mahjong among a younger generation, said that when she plays the game with friends, she is able to achieve a “zen state.”

“It kind of feels like I exist in this little bubble of just myself, my friends, and this game that we’re all enjoying together,” she said. “It really allows you to shut out the rest of the world.”

Some young enthusiasts aren’t looking to escape their phones through the activity of their choice, but are interested in how modern technology can enhance their experience.

Isaiah Scott, birder, artist and content creator, said the eBird app was a key part of his experience. It allows birders to record and track their observations while contributing to scientific research and conservation.

It’s easy to say that his generation is “glued to their phones,” Scott said, but that access to technology also “opens a lot of doors to get involved in hobbies that might have been forgotten or (are) just difficult to do otherwise.”

Scott, who lives in Savannah, Ga., said birdwatching is akin to the Pokémon games he loved growing up: “It feels like a video game, but in real life.” Traveling to different regions is like unlocking a new map, he said, and accumulating a large number of species sightings is like achieving a high score. Scott himself has observed around 800 different species.

In addition to providing him with a rewarding hobby, birdwatching has given 22-year-old Scott a mission to “protect and conserve our natural world.” He founded the nonprofit Rookery and Roots Conservancy and recently purchased a 16-acre parcel of land in Rincon, Georgia, to save wildlife habitats. The purchase was made possible in part by the platform he created online.

Online exposure to a global audience has helped other analog hobbyists create and run successful businesses through their popularity on social media. Anna Weare, for her part, is a full-time blacksmith and farrier, but she’s also known online as AnvilAnna.

She had already successfully worked with many clients when she began posting videos on TikTok and other social platforms, where she enjoyed international reach and enthusiasm. Weare thinks part of the brilliance of blacksmithing and other centuries-old practices might be due to weariness with a hyper-digitalized world and low-quality products. The waiting list to obtain Weare’s coveted one-piece spurs, known for their durability and rarity, lasts about a year.

“People, now more than ever, realize that factory-made or mass-produced things wear out so quickly,” Weare, 27, said. Whether they buy products she’s made or are inspired by her content to pick up the hammer themselves, Weare said “people want longevity, and this business has been around so long for a reason.”

Many crafters and hobbyists also feel a strong sense of community among their peers.

Kristie Landing created Verse & Sip, a platform and collective for poets and poetry lovers, and she posts online videos of letter writing, letter locking, wax seals, and origami, among other paper creations. Landing, 34, said she constantly gets questions from an “active community” of viewers about what type of paper she uses or where she buys her tools, but they also want to communicate with each other.

She recently launched a pen-writing service after receiving many comments from her subscribers who expressed that they would like to have someone to exchange letters with – particularly someone who would appreciate the care they put into their physical communications, or who would simply admire their handwriting.

Landing also created the Verse & Sip Mail Club, where she sends an original poem and tea to a few hundred people around the world every month. She hopes her online content will give viewers a similar sense of joy and calm to reading a hard copy of a poem over a cup of tea.

“I’m trying to create slower moments on very fast-paced, short attention span video-based platforms,” she said. “It kind of stops you in the scroll.”

Many hobbyists told the AP that they don’t view their chosen activity as a temporary fad or trend, but rather as part of a more intentional embrace of the analog world.

As for the “grandma’s hobby” moniker, MacTaggart, for one, welcomes the label.

“I joke with my friends that I’ve been a grandmother my whole life,” she said, “so it’s only fitting that this is now my career.”