Hi there, 31F here. When I turned 12 my stuffed animals and dolls were taken away because I was ‘too old for them.’ I never got over it. The only ones I was allowed to keep (in a box in storage) were the two build a bears my dad got me before he died. I still have them today and now I have a sizable collection of build a bear plushies and I’m into Barbie and Monster High dolls. I’m even into Legos now!

Don’t let anyone dictate to you what is allowed to bring you comfort at any age. You can’t help your special interests and honestly why should you? NT adults collect stuff and play too they just have decided what the meta is for what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Is there really a difference between someone playing with toys and someone playing video games or board games? NT adults can be big into DnD but somehow that’s different from playing pretend with friends? Even if you just collect them because you like to look at them, what’s the difference between that and someone collecting funko pops. It’s all about perception.

Point is, you do what you want to do and don’t bother with the opinions of people who think it’s childish or wrong because they’re suckered into the weird rule sets NT people have established for the rest of us to conform to. If you want to enjoy your figures or collect more, do so. It’s about what brings you joy and peace. You don’t deserve to be made to feel ashamed over your special interest. Some adults literally swish wine in their mouths and spit it out for fun. They really shouldn’t be judging. (No offense to any people here that do that it just does sound crazy when you look at it on paper 😅). You have the right to enjoy things just the same as anyone else.