Young Americans are skipping middle age entirely.

Twenty- and 30-somethings are exchanging their doomscrolling for needlepoint, journaling and other hobbies that require more than just thumbs or a thumbs-up.

Dubbed “granny core” or “grandma hobbies,” these pre-tech pastimes are surging, creating jarring scenes of young adults in knitting circles and bonding over sweaters and scrapbooks.

People who are adopting these activities say they were looking for ways to digitally detox and slow their roll. Some say they were surprised by how much they enjoyed hobbies they assumed they were decades away from picking up.

Monse Bolanos doesn’t know exactly how she got into “junk journaling,” a hybrid of collaging and scrapbooking. The 22-year-old elementary school librarian assistant said she felt the gravitational pull of pursuits like crafting, baking and reading as a way to change the pace of her life. Now she’s immersed in a world of young grandmas.

“It’s nice to know that even if work, school or whatever feels super stressful, I can go home and cosplay a 70-year-old retiree,” said Bolanos, who lives in the Detroit area. “It helps when there’s an entire side of the internet that partakes in the same hobbies that it helps me find even more ‘grandma-y’ hobbies to do.”

Minha Ghani, a 26-year-old community psychology researcher in Brooklyn, has made crafting a daily exercise after leaving a stressful job last fall.

“I felt like I had too much time taken away,” she said. “I wasn’t doing anything creative.”

She’s knitted a sweater vest and a winter hat. She’s junk-journaled about a trip to Scotland and London, using cutout letters and maps and recently made a summer bucket list, decorated with a red gingham background and a piece of an ice cream cup.

“These experiences are really offering something they can’t get online,” said Roseli Ilano, head of community and trends expert at Eventbrite , a global events marketplace. The company’s data show events around scrapbooking and junk journaling doubled between 2023 and 2024.

Cross-stitch pattern sales are up 89% this May compared with the year before, while needlecraft canvas sales are up 88% in the same period, according to Shopify, an e-commerce company.

In a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, 71% had participated in a craft project in 2024, said research firm Mintel. Among Gen Z, 86% identified as crafters and 30% had participated in an in-person arts-and-crafts class.

Katrina Stern sees herself as a pioneer of uncool hobbies in her youth. Growing up an only child, Stern picked up embroidery when she was 14 and later moved on to knitting and crocheting. The 36-year-old New Yorker recently expanded her repertoire to include diamond painting, a way to “bedazzle” a canvas with different colored beads.

Her social life now partly revolves around going to knitting and crocheting classes, where she met one of her best friends.

“If all I ever did was the ‘cool’ thing, I would think that would be a boring life,” said Stern, a senior vice president at a public relations firm. “I do think some crafters feel the same way.”

When the Woobles, a crochet company that offers beginner and more advanced kits, held its four-year anniversary party across two days in New York last year, more than 6,000 people showed up. The free event was so crowded that at times there was a five- to six-hour wait to get in.

At Saville Needleworks, a needlepoint business in Dallas that opened up a store in February, people can stitch at a community table or come to beginner and advanced classes for $20 a session that sell out. The store also holds a “Sip and Stitch” event for $10 for up to 12 people, said Megan Spurr, head of marketing and public relations at the store.

“You can play games or scroll on your phone for a few hours, or you could be spending that time with other people in a fun, welcoming community,” said Spurr. “Needlepoint provides the opportunity to learn something new, be social, and have something tangible that getting to level 6,000 on Candy Crush just doesn’t provide.”

Lauren Tilashalski picked up needlepoint in 2022 as a way to turn off her mind and take a break from her job, where she worked 70- to 80-hour weeks.

The 29-year-old attorney in Atlanta ended up getting her friends interested, too. Instead of standing around in a crowded bar, they regularly get together with their needlepoint projects, turn on reality TV or a football game, and talk about topics ranging from politics to Taylor Swift to the latest health kick.

“It provides an activity for friends to sit in silence together,” she said, “which I feel like is the hallmark of the most intimate relationships.”

Write to Ann-Marie Alcántara at [email protected]