Adults happily colouring outside the lines
Last month, I walked into an Indigo in downtown Toronto in search of an “adult colouring book” for my girlfriend and, because novels at Indigo are an afterthought to scented candles, throw pillows and designer stationery, I found what I was looking for almost immediately: Animal Kingdom, by Millie Marotta.
The colouring book is chock full of intricate illustrations of flora and fauna from nearly every ecosystem imaginable. “Beautiful pictures,” I thought when I picked it up. “But what kind of grown woman spends her time colouring bunny rabbits and lily pads?”
Apparently this kind. Although my girlfriend opened up Animal Kingdom exactly once over the holidays, I have yet to put it down.
Previously a diehard skeptic of the trend, I am now a full-fledged addict of adult colouring. In fact, it’s nothing short of miraculous that I was able to put down my current project (colouring the beak of a flamingo) to write this column.
From all accounts, my addiction isn’t unique. It’s near impossible to go into a book store today without encountering a table stocked with waiting-to-be-coloured illustrations of endangered species, dead rappers or the wonders of the ancient world.
The Toronto children’s literacy charity, Story Planet, recently held a sold-out fundraiser dedicated to the trend. Guests drank wine and coloured in tandem for a good cause.
The burning question, of course, is why? Why this insatiable appetite for colouring among adults?
For once, I think I have a pretty good answer: a theory I’ll call FOBEH, a.k.a. the Fear of Being Empty Handed.
Due to the constant thumbing and scrolling required to use our technology, many of us cannot experience digital deprivation (that’s digital as in fingers) without experi- encing extreme anxiety.
Pure non-hands-on leisure time, watching Netflix for example, is unnerving for people used to thumbing their way online every three seconds, which is why so many of us watch TV with our laptops at hand.
But checking in constantly, we know well, is bad for peace of mind and even worse for our eyes. (Sometimes after a long day at the computer, my eyes feel like eggs that have been fried too long.)
Adult colouring, then, is a way by which we can maintain our Internet-driven addiction to manual multi-tasking without having to use the Internet itself. It’s a screen-free method of keeping our eyes and hands busy, just like smoking, but unlike smoking, it can’t kill us. (Although it does look infinitely less cool.)
But the popularity of adult colouring may also be indicative of another recent movement: The rising legitimacy of arrested development.
Today, it’s OK to act like a kid, even if you aren’t one — maybe especially if you aren’t one. For the demographic previously known as adults, there’s no shame in participating in a variety of childlike activities, from hoverboarding or drone flying to escaping from locked or booby-trapped rooms (a popular and expensive activity available at art galleries and museums in many major cities) or, yes, adult colouring.
The down-aging craze is aided and abetted by the nostalgia machines of Buzzfeed and Upworthy, which constantly churn out lists on the theme of “27 toys you can’t forget if you’re a child of the 90s.”
Nostalgia isn’t new of course. My parents reminisce, sometimes ad nauseam, about their own music and even their toys from time to time. But their leisure activities aren’t defined or guided by their childhood.
Something is changing recreationally. Our parents invite friends over to drink $60 scotch; we invite ours over to colour the night away with $60 fine-tipped markers. They play poker; we play escape from the locked room.
Should we be ashamed by all of this? Those who think millennials are spoiled, puerile and entitled will probably say “yes.” But I think childhood regression in leisure activity is actually a good thing.
Play is scientifically proven to have therapeutic effects on adults. Its only downside is that people might still make fun of you.
But maybe not for long. It could be that just as rigid gender norms have relaxed in recent years, allowing for greater experimentation and acceptance, so too have rigid norms around what it means to be an adult.
You still have to pay your bills, of course, a huge drag, and get up for work every morning. But what real harm or shame is there in a little play at the end of the day? Now if you’ll excuse me, Animal Kingdom awaits. Emma Teitel is a national columnist.