Open Carry Plush Toy

Two years ago I set myself the challenge to carry around a plush toy everytime I went outside for the next 30 days.

The story begins when I noticed a young girl, aged four or five, holding onto a rabbit plushie in public1. At the time I didn’t think much of it. Little did I know, that moment ignited a spark, planting a thought that would begin to manifest in my mind.

“Why don’t adults do that?”

A simple question, yet its simplicity is what makes it genius. It’s a question that most people would be able to answer, but few able to ask.

The simple answer is “because carrying plush toys is for kids”. That’s the answer most adults would give you, but if you look closely, you’ll realise that it doesn’t actually answer the question. I had to dig deeper.

There are so many things we take for granted, but when we stop to think about it, we might find that there is actually no good reason why things are the way they are.

You see, I’ve always been one to be different, to behave in a way that doesn’t make sense to others, because what is normal to the rest of the world doesn’t make sense to me. I suppose all children are like that. However, over time they begin to conform to the world around them. I’ve noticed this take place in my own life, during my university years and beyond. I’ve noticed it multiple times, and each time I do, I yearn for the eccentricity I had before. Each time I notice it, I try to reconfigure my mind to think differently, so I can behave in slightly more playful manners.

Some examples of what I used to be like are: during high school I designed a 3d print of a whistle2 (to little success, the ball didn’t come out right), I printed options contracts for use as a social experiment3, and, I made a document with all the words I could think of that you could make out of the top row of the keyboard4. These are the sort of things that I simply stopped doing as I grew older. That to me is a shame, because useless as they may be, they represent a spirit of exploration and creativity. There is no purpose, no objective. They are examples of play, a way of engaging with the world through a different lens, and manifesting joy out of simple things.

The reason why I think adults lose this, is that the demands of the world eventually wear them down. Every action needs to have a purpose. You’re doing this so that you can turn it into a side hustle later, or learning to play the piano so you can be more intelligent. Wandering aimlessly with no direction is heavily frowned upon by our world.

It’s no secret that people lose their innocence as they become adults, and it’s commonly agreed that this is a bad thing. We as a society recognise and commend the few people that are able to maintain this childlike wonder into adulthood. Some examples are Walt Disney, Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), Stephen McDannell Hillenburg (creator of SpongeBob), Roald Dahl.

And so, as I continued to question why adults don’t carry plush toys, I decided that I’ll simply have to try it out and see what I would learn. No amount of theorising would teach me anything. For the next 30 days I set myself the challenge of carrying my plush toy around with me every time I went outside. The purpose of this challenge was for me to stretch my muscles of thinking different. A way of making my default behaviour novelty, rather than conformity. Part of that also means getting over my own insecurities with what people think of me. I was afraid of what people might think and what they might say, but that’s how I knew it was a worthwhile challenge. I needed to overcome that if I ever wanted to be truly authentic.

Instead of asking why I should do it, I asked myself why not5? It’s not physically difficult to do. It’s so easy, that even a child could do it ;)

Much like guns, plush toys are also weapons. But for joy and kindness rather than hatred and violence.

The name of this piece comes from a pun around wielding guns. Instead of the right to bear arms, you have the right to beared arms/armed bears. Meaning arms equipped with teddy bears. And like how open carry typically refers to publicly carrying around a gun, I’ve adopted it to mean publicly carrying around a plush toy.

My plush toy of choice. Friend6. My first ever plush toy, given to me as a birthday present when I turned 3.

At first I had a major psychological hurdle to bringing Friend out in public. I was deeply self-conscious about what other people would think, moreso than pretty much anything I’ve done before. Nevertheless, I forced myself through it since I set myself the challenge, and I wasn’t about to give up so easily. After a week, I got used to it and embraced the strangeness of the situation and used it to connect with people.

This alone would’ve made the challenge worth it, I think it’s always valuable to push yourself outside your comfort zone, as long as there’s no physical risk involved. It means you’ve upgraded your mental risk tolerance and allows you to do even more daring things in the future.

I was surprised to find that no one responded negatively. Not a single person. Everyone expressed either positivity or ambivalence. I could tell there were people who were judging but they all kept it to themselves so it was totally fine. This was a huge relief, since that was my biggest fear going into it. It turns out that being different doesn’t always have negative consequences, sometimes it’s celebrated. In my case, I had many people commend me on my plush toy. I was not only complimented on my plush toy itself, but my bravery in carrying it around.

Carrying around a plush toy made for a great conversation piece. A lot of people asked about it, and many strangers gave offhand comments. This is the beauty of a conversational affordance, and I think plush toys are one of the best. Although it does get tiring to repeat yourself all the time, with so many people asking why I have a plush toy.

Unintuitively, stretching myself outside of my comfort zone with carrying a plush toy around didn’t translate into making me less self-conscious in other areas. I still felt self conscious with things like dancing for example.

It turned out to be quite fun. There’s a simple pleasure in hugging a plush toy. Letting other kids play with it is fun too, although I didn’t let them do much with it, since I didn’t want it to get injured.

You have to plan ahead quite a bit, since you’ll only ever have one hand free. This makes eating, and going to the toilet, two things you definitely want to keep away from your plush toy, quite difficult. It’s inconvenient to carry around a plush toy, but the world doesn’t need more convenience. It needs more playfulness.

I definitely accomplished the original goal of the challenge, to stretch my ability to be original and non-conformist. Coming back to the question why do I do this? I think there’s part of me which constantly seeks to be different. I’m not entirely sure why but I find it very rewarding to be different, despite all the social pressures against it. I’m constantly searching for secrets of the universe and I know that I’m not going to find it by doing the same thing with everyone else is. You can’t learn anything new by doing the same things everyone else does, you have to do things no one else has, to learn things no one else has. Outlier outcomes come from outlier behaviour.

After I did this challenge, I started to notice people carrying plush toys everywhere. It’s something that once you see, you cannot unsee. And so, I started taking pictures of them, every time I saw someone carrying a plush toy. There have been many instances I’ve missed, because you usually only have a few seconds when they walk past you to take a photo7. I wanted to do a photo exhibition for this, but I haven’t gotten around to arranging that yet. Surprisingly, a good amount of people carrying plush toys are adults. The most common locations for spotting this phenomenon were: at airports, theme parks/places where plush toys were sold, in China/Japan.

The initial challenge took place two years ago, and since then I stopped carrying my plushy around everywhere. This was so that I could protect it and keep it in good condition. I would have kept carrying it around all the time if I had a way to protect it.

Recently I visited San Francisco and decided to once again bring my plush toy everywhere. It was a great challenge and I was more prepared this time, having obtained a briefcase I could stash it in when the situation called for it. That did the job most of the time, but Friend was still susceptible to aerial particles such as smoke, which unfortunately is rampant in San Francisco.

Ever since my original challenge, I’ve had the idea of getting a bag for Friend. A bag that could both protect and showcase Friend. It would have to be a clear vinyl plastic bag, which was able to be enclosed, to protect from the rain. I wanted it to look as clean as possible, to keep Friend, or any other plush toy, the focus. I wasn’t able to find anything available for purchase on the market, so I realised I had to create it myself. Luckily, during my visit to San Francisco, I met Manasiyo, a fashion house formed by two fashion designers, who were taking on clients for bespoke pieces. They were up for the challenge and loved my vision and decided to create it for me.

Here’s the final product!

If you like the design of this bag and want to get one for yourself, fill out this expression of interest form so I can gauge demand to see if there’s enough to do a production run.

I found that a lot of people really resonated with the idea to be more childlike in our approach to the world. It taps into something that is core to our humanity. There’s a lack of wonder and play in the world, and it longs to be brought into existence.

I believe everyone can benefit from carrying around their plush toy. It doesn’t have to be all the time, but a few times at least. It’s a great way to bring joy to not just yourself but others as well. And you might discover all kinds of things you didn’t expect.

Heed the call to arms and take up your plushy, and bring the joy of childlike wonder to the world. If you do end up doing this, take a photo and tag #opencarryplushtoy on Instagram or Twitter.

Thanks to all who responded kindly to my carrying a plush toy, for giving me the privilege of imparting joy to them. Special thanks go to Fromsa and April who created the Open Carry bag for me, bringing my vision to life.

Why do you have a plush toy?

There were many ways I answered this question, depending on my energy levels and who I was talking to. I don’t like repeating myself so that’s why I have so many different answers to this. During the initial challenge I told people about the challenge and the story behind it with the little girl. When pressed for time or when I couldn’t be bothered, I would say “for fun”. In my second run, when I had more time I would say, it’s a symbol or reminder to see the world like a child. And truthfully, the main reason why I carry Friend around now is for other people, to bring them joy and inspire them to see the world like a child. There’s little value it brings to myself besides helping with striking up conversations, especially with women because it makes me less intimidating.

What animal is Friend?

A lot of people mistook Friend for a moose, but as you can tell, it is clearly a reindeer.

Is it a boy or a girl?

I think at one point I did think of Friend as one gender, but I have since forgotten and now I view Friend as neither, or both. I don’t mind referring to Friend as he or she, or it. First and foremost above gender, it’s my friend.

Is this your emotional support animal?

This was a funny line that I enjoyed receiving. Unfortunately, the novelty of carrying around Friend for me has mostly worn off, so I don’t get emotional support from it. It would be nice if I could once again experience what it was like as a child, to need your plush toy for emotional support when going outside. That is a joy that maturity has robbed me of.

It’s in such great condition! It looks brand new

Ok this one isn’t a question but a comment I received many times after telling people I’ve had it since I was 3. What can I say? I take good care of my belongings. There are some blemishes on Friend, and when I was younger it would really bum me out because of my perfectionist tendencies, but I’ve come to peace with it now.

good on you mate

I’m enjoying your teddy

That is very good. Something to cuddle

^ this one was my favourite

Most of the strangers who commented were old ladies which I thought was nice.

You can find Friend on Instagram at reindeer.friend for more pics.