Why Young People in 2025 Are Shopping for Feelings, Not Things
Buying joy. Paying for dopamine. And turning “emotional value” into the hottest currency of the year.
In 2025, shopping isn’t just about what you need. It’s about how you feel.
According to a new 2025 Youth Emotional Consumption Report jointly released by Douyin Mall (China’s TikTok Shop) and SocialBeta, emotional value has officially become one of the strongest forces shaping how young people spend their money.
The numbers tell a clear story. 88.2% of young people say they’re under stress, and when life feels overwhelming, purchases that deliver instant positive feedback are becoming a fast, accessible emotional outlet.
In other words, people aren’t just buying products. They’re buying relief.
Welcome to the Age of “Emotional Spending”
Young consumers today describe their mindset with a phrase that keeps popping up online. “Raising myself all over again.”
After meeting basic material needs, many are now prioritizing emotional comfort, identity, and joy. Nearly 30% of young people’s spending goes toward hobbies and interests, turning consumption into a form of self-expression rather than obligation.
This shift helps explain why entire industries tied to emotion are booming. Designer toys, cultural tourism, pets, food and drink, and novelty products are all seeing rapid growth, with momentum expected to continue for years.
Emotional value has become the new hard currency.
The Rise of “Mental Fast Charging”
Young people who are willing to pay an emotional premium aren’t just upgrading necessities. They’re buying products that exist purely to make them feel something.
Think of it like charging your phone. These products offer a quick emotional boost, low commitment, instant satisfaction. Easy to buy. Easy to feel better.
This is where “novelty goods” come in. Quirky, abstract, sometimes useless, often delightful. Together, they’ve become a new category of mental fast chargers designed for modern attention spans and fast decision-making.
Here’s how they show up.
1. Stress-Relief Products. Dopamine, On Demand.
Long, traditional self-care routines don’t always work in a short-video world. Young consumers increasingly prefer fast, simple relief.
Stress toys, fidget cubes, squishy gadgets, and oddly satisfying objects have exploded online. On Douyin alone, the hashtag #StressReliefToys has racked up 43.8 billion views.
Watching someone else squeeze a toy counts too. Emotional relief doesn’t always require ownership, just exposure.
Alongside this is the rise of modern “soft mysticism.” When work pressure rises, young people turn to symbolic comfort. Digital prayer beads, lucky charms, zodiac phone cases, scratch-off lottery tickets. It’s not about belief. It’s about hope, control, and emotional buffering.
2. Brain-Twisting Products. Fighting Life Fatigue.
Repetition drains energy. Novelty restores it.
During the 2025 Lunar New Year, young people ditched traditional gifts for playful, absurd alternatives. Edible spicy-strip couplets. Crab toys that “dance” while setting off fireworks. The stranger, the better.
Cultural tourism has leaned into this too. Museums and cities now design merchandise that goes beyond symbolism and into emotional storytelling. A garlic-shaped bird souvenir in Wuhan. A plush toy version of Xi’an’s famous meat sandwich.
These items don’t just represent culture. They disrupt boredom.
3. Healing Goods. A Spa Day for the Mind.
Uncertainty and fast-paced urban life have created deep demand for emotional softness.
“Healing goods” are items that provide comfort rather than utility. Plush toys. Aromatherapy. DIY kits that bring people back to childhood.
The market is responding fast. According to China’s 2025 Toy Industry White Paper, online plush toy sales reached 3.96 billion yuan in 2024, growing 20.9% year-over-year.
Brands like Jellycat and Pop Mart have become emotional painkillers for adults. Not because they’re toys, but because they offer companionship, nostalgia, and a sense of being cared for.
4. Novelty as Social Currency
Strange food, weird drinks, unexpected flavors. These products spread because they’re made to be shared.
From enamel strawberry cakes to braised-meat yogurt to mushroom-infused beer, novelty food dominates feeds not just for taste, but for conversation value.
Posting these items isn’t just consumption. It’s identity signaling. “This is who I am.”
As more young consumers participate in creating, remixing, and sharing novelty ideas, emotional consumption becomes collective, not solitary.
Five Emotional Shopper Archetypes
Based on behavioral patterns, the report identifies five major emotional-consumption personas:
The Chaos Scholar. Uses absurdity and humor to cope with stress
The Reward-Driven Buyer. Purchases as self-affirmation
The Fragile Energy Saver. Looks for low-effort comfort
The Mysticism Enthusiast. Finds peace in symbolic belief
The Novelty Seeker. Lives for first-time experiences
Different motivations. Same emotional logic.
Why TikTok-Style Platforms Are Fueling This Shift
If emotional consumption had a home base, it would be short-video platforms.
On Douyin, the hashtag #MentalStateBelike has reached 199.1 billion views, with over 13.8 million posts. In the first half of 2025 alone, Douyin Mall generated 852 novelty product trends, more than double the total for all of 2024.
Video views hit 43.8 billion, with 95.46 million search actions triggered after watching, proving one thing. Emotional resonance converts.
To lean into this, Douyin Mall launched a new IP called “Try Something New”, designed to surface playful, unusual products and cure bad moods at scale.
By mid-2025, the hashtag had amassed 71.4 billion views.
The Bottom Line
Young people in 2025 aren’t shopping irrationally. They’re shopping intentionally, just not traditionally.
When stress is constant and certainty is scarce, emotional value becomes logical value. A plush toy, a strange drink, a fidget gadget. These aren’t frivolous purchases. They’re emotional infrastructure.
Shopping has become self-care. Novelty has become therapy. And dopamine, it turns out, has excellent conversion rates.
If you’re wondering why people are still buying in uncertain times, here’s the answer.
They’re not buying stuff.
They’re buying themselves a moment of feeling okay.
