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Too many people believe LEGO is just child’s play, which can make you feel like you shouldn’tlove LEGO as an adult. However, these bricks are for all ages, so there’s nothing wrong with being an AFOL (adult fan of LEGO). Don’t believe us? We’ll highlight all the reasons it’s okay to love LEGO as an adult.
1. You Will Stress Less and Cope Better
We’ve (wrongly) been told that we need to stop playing as adults. Because playtime is so important during our childhoods, we assume that growing up means we need to leave it in the past. However, research shows that play is just as important for adults as it is for kids, especially when it comes to stress.
A 2013 studylooked at how play affects an adult’s ability to cope with stress. After looking at nearly 900 young adults in the study, the researchers found that adults who engaged in play reported lower levels of perceived stress. The researchers also discovered that playful adults were more likely to use healthy coping strategies.
Based on these findings, if someone ever asks why you’re playing with LEGO as an adult, you can tell them that these bricks help you stress less.
2. It’ll Get the Creative Juices Flowing
When you think of creativity, images of artists and writers might come to mind. However, painting and writing novels aren’t the only ways to exercise your creativity.
Creativity is anything that engages your mind and encourages you to think in different ways. When you think creatively, it can help you come up with new ways to solve problems. It can also help you develop more confidence in yourself as you discover your ability to think of new ideas and solutions.
LEGO presents plenty of opportunities to get the creative juices flowing. When you look at a pile of bricks in front of you, you may use your creativity to make anything your mind can conceive. This requires you to decide what to build and how to work around challenges to build it, which hardly sounds like child’s play.
3. It’s a Chance to Bond and Build With Others
While you can build LEGO sets on your own, LEGO doesn’t have to be a solitary hobby. It can help you connect with other people.
More adults love LEGO than you may think, and many of them connect in person and online to build and share tips. You can go online to find a group near you so that you can attend in-person events and make new friends who share your passion. Online communities also exist that can allow you to chat and connect with other AFOLs using the power of the internet.
And let’s not forget that you can always share your love of LEGO with the people who are already in your life. You can invite friends and family members to help you with your latest build or see if there’s a set they’d like to explore. Think of it this way: if people get together for board game nights, why can’t you host a LEGO night?
4. LEGO Can Give You a Taste of Nostalgia
All of us have fond childhood memories of playing with our favorite toys. For those who spent time with LEGO as kids, just seeing the plastic bricks can bring back happy childhood memories.
If you think nostalgia is just a sentimental emotion, you’re wrong. AsKrystine Batcho explains, Nostalgia is important because remembering the past can bring us back to our authentic selves. Not only that, but it can also remind us of who we once were so that we can compare who we are today and who we want to be in the future.
So, bringing out the bricks can trigger those pleasant childhood memories while also helping us gain a greater sense of self. When you think of LEGO that way, it hardly seems childish to love these bricks as an adult.
5. You Can Enjoy Sets Marketed to Adults
If the reasons we’ve mentioned so far still don’t have you convinced that it’s okay to love LEGO as an adult, consider this: there areLEGO sets specifically for adults.
Just look at theLEGO Icons Eiffel Towerwith more than 10,000 pieces and theLEGO Ideas The Officeset inspired by the show; these sets weren’t designed with kids in mind. The brand makes dozens of sets for builders over the age of 18 every year. These sets include a wide variety of challenges and themes that appeal to adult LEGO fans.
With so many LEGO sets for grown-ups, it’s strange to think that some people believe this building toy isn’t for adults. After all, if people were supposed to stop building with bricks after their 18th birthday, why would these sets exist?
6. You Get to Display Completed Sets as Decor
Some people are reluctant to build a LEGO set because they don’t know where they’ll put it when it’s finished. This is a non-issue because completed LEGO sets can be awesome accent pieces in your home or office.
For example, if you love having fresh-cut flowers in your home but hate how often you have to replace them, abotanical set from the LEGO Iconsline can be a great solution. Maybe flowers don’t fit with your aesthetic. Instead, you might like cars or Star Wars. The good news is there are plenty of those types of sets for adults too. You can even find pieces like theLEGO Ideas Typewriterthat would look great on any bookshelf or coffee table.
As you’re able to see, everything from the process of building a LEGO set to displaying it in your home makes it okay to love LEGO as an adult. You can mention all these reasons to anyone who tries to tell you that you’re too old for these bricks.
