March 14, 2016 • 51 mins
Coloring book sales have soared as adults rediscover the calming effects of this childhood pastime. Cristen and Caroline sketch out how the grownup coloring book trend began, psychological debates about its benefits and gender in between the lines.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told You from how stup
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Kristen and I'm Caroline. Caroline. I gotta tell you, I
am so impressed with your coloring book skills. So listeners,
(00:24):
Caroline posted a little teaser photo this week, the week
that we are recording this podcast um on Instagram of
a notorious RBG coloring that she did, and it was
so good you did shading just gave a little blush.
But I mean even there's a so the coloring book
(00:47):
picture that Caroline drew was Ruth Bader Ginsburg I think
on a unicorn with a rainbow in the background. But
you even did like shading in the rainbow. Yeah, yeah,
you know, darker on the ends, lighter toward the middle.
Wait until you see the shading on the unicorn's main
Oh my gosh, I just did a close up. I
(01:07):
just wanted to be a teaser so that people would
uh tune into our Facebook live and see it. Yeah,
which which unfortunately, by the time you're listening to this
will have already happened. But that means you can go
on to Facebook and watch it and see Caroline's full drawing. Yeah,
it was great. It was like guilty pleasure homework. Listen, listen,
let me set the scene for you. This was a
(01:29):
couple of days ago prior to this recording, and I
had been working for hours and hours, and I was like,
you know what I need to I need to set
us set some time for myself. You know what I'm
gonna do. I'm gonna watch the down Abbey series finale,
and I am gonna color this picture of Ruth bader
Ginsburg on a unicorn. That sounds like the perfect combination.
(01:51):
It was like the greatest hour and a half of
my life, well that day anyway. Well, and you are
one of just so many adults who was rediscovering the
joy of coloring. I loved it. When I was a child,
I was not so good at coloring within the lines um.
But actually for Christmas this year, uh, we we go
(02:13):
for Christmas dinner. Every year, we go over to our
neighbor's house and have a big family dinner, and the
matriarch of that family gifted my mother and me with
coloring book calendars. So I mean it's like it was
the these intricate, intricate drawings that you have to color in,
(02:34):
because apparently adult coloring books can't just be like simple,
they can't just be Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a unicorn
and it's beautiful, Like you have a different illustration for
every month and you can color it in ever you
like and it and it was really nice. I don't
give myself as much time to do it as I
would like. Um, because it is a nice way to
like have something to do with your hands while you're
(02:55):
watching TV so that you don't feel like you're wasting time.
You need to find a new down n Abbey. It
sounds like I know, I know. Um well, luckily House
of Cards just came back on there. Although you need
to pay attention, it's true. Yeah yeah, well but come
to find out, so in doing this uh podcast research, Yes,
we researched coloring book and it was so fun. It
(03:16):
was fun. But apparently this woman in Scotland, Johannah Basford,
is like a badass when it comes to coloring book
creation and illustration. And it turns out that my coloring
book Calendar is by the now famous Johannah Basford. Yeah,
I mean she it seems like, is responsible for this
whole adult coloring book massive trend and also possibly I
(03:40):
mean the boon to just the print industry in general. Yeah,
coloring books are a big deal right now. And the
way that Bassford ended up getting into adult coloring books,
I mean because she did not set out to become
an adult coloring book artist. Um Lawrence King pub Wishing
approached her a few years ago after seeing some of
(04:03):
the free desktop wallpapers that she posted online, and they
wanted to commission a children's book, but instead she pitched
them a coloring book because people had been coloring in
her wallpapers. Because what she does for people who aren't
familiar with her work, it's just a lot of really intricate,
like ink drawings. Is that the best way to describe them, Caroline? Yeah,
And I mean the publisher was skeptical, Uh this was
(04:26):
pre booming coloring book trend um, but then they saw
her first submissions and they were sold. So her first
creation was the coloring books Secret Garden, which is what
my calendar is based on. It's also a Secret Garden
coloring book. But I love this. It was inspired by
Scotland's Broddick Castle Gardens, where her grandfather had been the
(04:48):
head gardener. And now there are more than one point
five million copies in print. Yeah, and doesn't she now
have three coloring books in the series. I know. The
most recent one was Under the Sea coloring book that
I really want to get. Yeah, she has, Yeah, she
has a couple in her in her series now and
they really are these intricate, uh, intricate illustrations, like you said.
(05:12):
And the frustrating part because I got to the February
the February page just a lot of hearts and leaves
and stuff, and I actually had the thought, which I
never thought I would have this thought, but I actually
had the frustrated, resentful thought of like, this basic box
of colored pencils is not cutting it. I need more
(05:33):
color options. So now I've got a haul my butt
over to the art store that's over here by our
office and get some more colored pencils. I love that well.
And one really neat thing too about Bassford's coloring books
are that she hides images within these really intricate designs
and landscapes that she does. And that's why, um like
(05:55):
the series are called inky treasure hunts. Um. So it's
is so creative and she seems just like a delightful
person in general. By the way. She had an interview
over at Smart Girls at the Party, which is one
of our favorite outlets online UM, and she talked a
lot about the support that she received from her mom
(06:17):
friends up. I think particularly when she was making her
most recent coloring book, because I think she was a
new mom at the time, very new mom, and all
of her mom friends encouraged her to keep going and
create these books because at first she was like, there's
no way I can do this, this is just too much.
I can't possibly but she did well. Yeah, And she
(06:38):
told Smart Girls that all of her girlfriends, all of
these women around her told her that being a working
mum was an inspiring thing for her little girl to see,
not a setback, and she said that they removed the guilt.
They gave her the boost that she needed to remember
that she could do stuff like this. I love those girls,
she said. And it also seemed like she is really
(07:02):
supportive of her fellow female artists and enjoys shouting them
out as well. Um Smart Girls asked her whether there
are other lady artists out there who inspire her, and
she said, quote loads, although she clarifies that I mean,
if you look at a picture. It's not like you
can immediately tell whether she calls it it was created
(07:22):
by someone with a bra. But she does have a
list of other women whose vision, focus and work really
inspires her. So she called out or A Keiley, cath Kidstone,
and also Jessica Walsh. Oh, and also Beyonce. Yeah, so
she has all these different women who inspire her for
different reasons, you know, everything from their actual work to
the way they live their lives. And she cited Beyonce
(07:46):
as an incredible musician and so creatively clever, but also
essentially a working mom. That's true. Who isn't inspired by
Beyonce in some way? Working moms supporting working moms. Yeah,
I love it. I do love it. But it's not
just gardens and flowers and little bees drawn into the
background to find. There are plenty of absurd and feminist
(08:10):
offerings out there, everything from like we talked about, Ruth
Bader Ginsburg all the way to Volvo's people. Yeah, if
you want to try out this whole adult coloring thing,
there is definitely a book or a print out online
for you. Because, as we shared far and wide across
the sminty social media verse, she Knows dot Com has
(08:33):
free print outs of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in various scenarios,
which are fantastic. Yeah, but you can also get a
Hillary Clinton coloring book from Valentine Ramon. Unicorns Are Jerks
and Fat Ladies in Space, a body positive coloring book
We're both created by Nicole Lorenz. You've got the Big
Coloring Book of Vaginas by Morgan Hastings. Girls Are Not
(08:55):
Chicks by Just sent to Vanell and Julie Novak and
Coloring Outside the Kitchen by Casey Landau. Those are just
a couple. But Caroline by far the coloring book. And
this is a vintage adult coloring book we ran across.
I guess, I don't know. Is it technically adult or
more just a sex education coloring book that we ran
across on Amazon that made us just kind of stop
(09:20):
and stare for a moment. Is the sea word that
we can't say on the podcast? Coloring Book by t
Karin Yeah, and the description is over three dozen sea
words of every size and description for you to color.
Originally used for sex education class. Crayons not included. And
while that might sound like like a super vulgar kind
(09:43):
of coloring book. No. Karin had a very like feminist
intention with this. She said in ninety three, I set
out to do drawings of women's genitals for use in
sex education groups. I wanted the drawings to be lovely
and informative, to give pleasure and affirmation. I organized the
drawings into a coloring book because a major way we
learned to understand the world is children is by coloring,
(10:05):
and as adults, many of us will still need to
learn about our external sexual anatomy and tique her in
brilliant idea true, true, and true, although you just might
need to remarket the maybe maybe tweaked the title. UM.
I highly encourage you to go look for this book
on Amazon. Even if you don't buy it, you can
(10:26):
get the cover printed on a T shirt BT dubs um.
But the reviews of this book are hysterical. There are
a lot of people who are very enthusiastic about it
and think it's fabulous, whether it's because they think it's
funny or because it's educational or whatever. There was a
negative review I saw that was like the quality of
the paper subpar, subpar, one star. We've got all of
(10:48):
Amazon reviews. I like that that's a complaint. Um, But
all of these coloring book titles have been flourishing and
publishers are loving it. I mean they literally are having
a heart of time just keeping up with demand. Um.
In Spring, for instance, coloring book sales exploded and the
(11:08):
publisher Dover has racked up ten million dollars in coloring
book sales in just a few years. And I noticed
before we did this podcast, actually, Caroline, I noticed that, huh,
this must be a huge thing now because when I
was getting some lunch at Whole Foods, there was an
(11:28):
adult therapy coloring book right next to like the Yoga
monthly magazine. Yeah, exactly. Now I have seen that exact
same coloring book, and so it, Yeah, it makes sense
why there are so many dollars being driven by coloring books.
You've got the Quarto Publishing Group USA. Their sales have
been driven in particular by the Zen coloring Books line,
(11:51):
which is sold more than two hundred and seventy thousand copies.
They've got titles like Color Me Calm and Color Me Happy,
which were aided by art therapist Lacy Mucklow working with
artist Angela Porter. And you have more and more publishers
and booksellers getting in on the game too, and it
seems like they're either going the funny route with titles
(12:13):
like Himming Waisted or more meditative with the color Your
Way to Calm. They're so much conversation now um and
social media posts about anxiety and coloring and how it
can induce that meditative state. And as a result, though,
coloring books have consistently been in the top fifteen bestsellers
(12:35):
on Amazon, and Johanna Bassford's Secret Garden was Amazon's number
one best seller for a while. Yeah, and so, I
mean publishers are stoked, like obviously, like is this bringing
back print? It's probably it's not going to do anything
for newspapers. Sorry, but I mean, it really is getting
people to look away from their screens for a while,
(12:58):
even if they then do immediately go and post pictures
on social of their coloring like I did, which is
no big deal. And what I would not have guessed
about all of this is how this trend that we're
seeing now in the States started in France. Yeah, yeah,
I love it so coloring. Adult coloring came into vogue
in France a couple of years ago. In twenty twelve
(13:20):
with the book Art Therapy, one hundred anti stress coloring
pages featuring mandola like designs promising relaxation support. And the
success of this book prompted a whole series, which has
gone on to sell more than two point five million
copies in France and one million in eighteen other countries
around the world. And what's so great is that pretty
(13:42):
soon even fashion houses like Eve St Laurent we're getting
in on the fun, and air Maze, for instance, released
their own twelve page, one hundred and sixty dollar coloring
book that featured animals and clothes. Oh, let me just
rush out and buy myself just a few copy of that.
Just well, some to use this kindling in the fire,
(14:04):
but one to keep it actually color. Um. And of
course there's an Atlantic think piece about this. Yeah there,
Actually there's a couple. I was about to say, yeah,
there's more than one, um. But in this think piece
they say that a contributing factor to this starting in France,
is that French people are some of the most depressed
(14:25):
and anxious in the world, which I also didn't know.
I had no idea. Yeah. According to the World Health
Organization in twentleven, they found that France's lifetime rate of
major depression was higher than any of the seventeen other
countries that they surveyed. And in two thousand nine, for instance,
there were actually so many workplace suicides that companies were
(14:49):
prompted to hold these things called stress negotiations with employees.
And so what are these things you have to do
with each other? The whole stress and depression and anxiety
aspect and coloring, well, I mean, depending on who you
ask and what Atlantic think piece you read, it kind
of has everything to do with it. Yeah, I mean,
(15:09):
the whole idea is that this act of coloring reduces
your stress, it boosts mindfulness. Mindfulness is a is a
big buzzword, and the coloring book Zeitgeist um. And also
this ties into our growing conversations about being attached to screens,
about how we're working twenty four hours. Essentially we're constantly
(15:32):
burning out and our need for self care. Coloring is
our self care, Caroline. Yeah, And the very skeptical Cape
Mossman over at the New Statesman and just basically ties
us in with marketing genius, she says, by branding themselves
as quote analog activities, the new Coloring books sees on
our half formed anxieties about having a digital life, providing
(15:54):
commercially packaged, screen free pastimes that promised to reconnect us
with ourselves. She goes on to say that this now
analog hobby becomes a total craze. It's part of the
whole night guys thing. And then people turn around and
get on Twitter, Instagram anyway, just to post pictures of
their creations, like you did like Instagram. That's that is correct,
(16:18):
and yes, that is a plug post stuff. Mom never
told you Instagram. Um. And it's funny because I don't
think Kate Mossman is wrong. But it's just like my
overwhelming response to so many of the stuff, so many
of the sources we read about coloring books is like
chill out. Let people do whatever they're gonna do. The
skeptical sources you mean, yeah, oh yeah, I mean. And
(16:40):
and it is funny when you see people who are
so passionate about coloring books. But that almost like warms
my cold dead heart a little bit more. The skeptical
stuff is just like, guys, why do we care what
other people are doing with their colored pencils? I mean,
and I have oh god, I hate that I'm saying
this out loud, but I have not yet found the time, Caroline,
to sit down and try out coloring, you know, as
(17:04):
you know, as an adult. Um. But what you've talked about,
and also what we've read from people like Julie Beck
in The Atlantic makes total sense. I mean she describes
it as a form of meditation for people who are
too twitchy to sit still, and that's absolutely me. I
mean I have a really hard time sitting through a
whole movie if I'm not at least being what I
(17:25):
call productive at some point, whether it's like cleaning up
or maybe getting on my laptop to do stuff I've
never told you work. So I mean I should probably
get to coloring. Well. Yeah, and Beck also points out
that it offers the benefit of creativity without the paralysis
that a blank page can lead you to feel. She
(17:47):
calls us the paradox of choice. You're faced with a
blank page and you're like, oh, what do I draw?
What do I create? What do I write? Um? But
when it's a coloring book, it's like I just get
to choose my colors and blend them and shade them
and choose what color. RBGS Unicorn is going to be
UM and this, as we will talk about, has led
(18:09):
a lot of people to kind of tisk tisk colorers. Colorers. Well,
there is psychological support for coloring that does go back
to Carl Young. I mean, he was kind of the
original coloring therapist because he would have his patients draw
and cover mandolas because of its calming effect and to
(18:29):
facilitate what he called psychic integration. And this was also
backed by a study which found that activities like coloring
mandolas significantly reduce anxiety. And so researchers say that it
has this distressing effect because you get to focus on
a particular task, take your mind off your worries, and
(18:50):
it also sort of links you subconsciously back to a
simpler time, presumably a simpler time of childhood when you
did have, however, much time to play and color and
you know whatever, whatever those coloring books might have been.
UM and huff Huffington Post talk to psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala,
who said that when we color, we are actually activating
(19:14):
all different parts of our brain. We're using logic, so
we're coloring existing forms and coloring them inside the lines,
but we're also blending that with creativity because we're having
to mix and match and choose colors. And so she
says that we are incorporating areas in our brain that
are involved in both fine motor skills and vision. Yeah yeah,
hold that pencil just right. But also that it lowers
(19:37):
activity in the amygdala, which is an area involved in
controlling emotions, and it's also affected a lot by stress.
And one thing that jumped out to me in one
of these pieces where a woman was talking about how
therapeutic coloring has been for her, she never goes back
and looks at what she's colored before it. Also, I
mean it kind of reminds me of the yoga ethos
(19:59):
of just sort of letting things go. You're in the
moment and then you just turn the page, or like journaling. Yeah,
I mean if you journal and you just you write
down the days, fears, worries, woes and just kind of
leave it behind. Well, and that echoes exactly Caroline. What
psychologists Antoni Martinez said that we can use this coloring
to enter a quote more creative, freer state and also
(20:23):
connect with how we feel, because Martinez suggests that our
color choices are sort of like mood rings. They tell
us how we're feeling. So if I ever sit down
and just color Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a unicorn, just
fill it all in with a with an unfortunate green,
then I probably need to take a vacation. Probably, But
(20:44):
luckily you can print out more copies of that. Yeah,
And also chances are it's probably just a case that
I only had a green craze on. You you bring
years into work and it's just like scribbled all over. Yeah,
I just have one of those, um like a broken
off restaurant crayon. You know that people give kids those
little stubs. Well, so everybody, though, from psychologists to artists
(21:09):
and art therapists, are understandably dubious about the coloring book
trend only as it relates to like mindfulness and stress relief.
But we'll get right back into that, and we come
right back from a quick break. Caroline, I'm super excited
to talk about Lola because Lola is a tampon service,
(21:33):
and obviously on stuff I've never told you. We love
pretty much anything that has to do with periods and tampons,
And the great thing about Lola is a the box
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I mean, and it's also nice to like have just
like such an aesthetically pleasing box to open as you're
reaching for a tampon. It kind of helps you forget
(21:55):
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(22:17):
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(22:41):
get one cotton tampons, go to my Lola dot com
entercode mom Stuff. So Caroline, how get someone possibly bad
mouth coloring? It seems like just the most innocent of hobbies.
(23:02):
I I absolutely think it's innocent. I mean, I for me, like,
the only way to possibly bad mouth coloring would be
like Caroline, you should be doing the laundry instead, But
while you're doing the laundry, why not color? I mean
at all? It all just works out and you get
to see the color spread across the page. I guess
maybe I like coloring for the same reason that I
(23:23):
like laundry, because you literally immediately get to see the progress. Anyway,
I like these connections. We're making. So many you guys
are learning so many, like really boring facts about me today.
I would call them colorful facts. Oh yeah, there we go.
Um well, you know for starters, people do point out
(23:45):
that these intricate adult coloring books creations like the ones
that Johanna Basford makes, are pretty difficult, and that they're
like almost impossible to finish. I have only done I
haven't gotten a March yet. Sorry sorry people, But for
January and February and my coloring calendar, I've only finished
(24:07):
like half of each drawing. Oh I bet, I mean
I think it would take hours to complete a bastard
page and my hand starts to hurt. Yet a little
stress ball with those little squeezy Now I should I
should get one of those like carpal tunnel braces. Oh
my gosh, I really hope to come to work one
day and see you, you know, with our standing stand
up desks next to each other, just like soaking your
(24:30):
your little coloring hand in an ups some salt bath.
Oh yeah, no, and we will talk about the importance
of that. Um. But yeah, A lot of people are like, sure,
it allows you to focus, like you can sit down
and focus on the exact shade of rbg's rainbow. But
are we trying to elevate this beyond just a kitty pastime.
Is it really fostering or helping creativity at all? Because
(24:53):
that's that seems to be the main fear, is that
we're stunting true creativity, whether you are a child, old
or an adult, and that it's being falsely sold as therapy.
And one of the biggest voices with this concern in
our in our modern age anyway, is one Susan Striker,
who in the late seventies and early eighties she's an
(25:14):
art teacher. She published her anti coloring book series, one
for kids and one for adults to basically try to
push back against the damaging effects of such a strictly
defined and what she called creativity limiting task, one that
she felt turned children into robots. Yeah, so the anti
(25:35):
coloring book might contain, say, part of a picture of
a horse. Maybe it has like the head, and it
would be like, okay, here's the head of a horse.
Now you draw the res But for someone like me
who cannot, I'm not very good at drawing, Caroline, it
is not it's not in my skill set, and that's
totally fine. The anti coloring book would have made me
(25:57):
so distressed as a child, and that horse would have
would have been a hot mess. You would have just
colored the head and then it would have been like
and Kristen actually just has the Godfather coloring book, Like
draw a bed around this dismembered exactly And I could
handle a bed. It's just the rectangle with more rectangles
(26:19):
for pillows were rectangles and then another rectangle for the
blanket across. Yeah, we're about on the same. I like
your god Father coloring book, Caroline, which probably exists. But
back to Susan Striker, of course, people have asked her
what she thinks about the revived trend. Yeah, she's not pleased.
She says, well, yeah, if you I'm just this, this
(26:39):
is me projecting a tone. If you want to use
more therapy speak, I'm projecting right now. But Striker says, yeah,
I mean, if you want to turn off your mind
instead of turning it up, then coloring is one way
to do it. It can allow you to tune out
of your life. And it's a choice. Should I take
a drink or drugs or pick up a coloring book,
Susan Striker, Yeah, invite her to your wine and coloring
(27:02):
party seriously, which I want to have? Um. But she
goes on to say, because she's not, she's not done,
nor should she be. Susan, We're not trying to silence you.
She says. People really have been educated to believe that
they cannot do art. And I can see where she's
coming from, Like, I mean, how many you've got all
of these math classes? How many art classes do you have?
(27:22):
You know, I loved art as a kid, I just
didn't always have time to pursue it. She says, a
coloring book can help you empty out your mind. Yet
to be mindful is not to escape from your problems,
but to face them head on. The new mindful coloring
books are mindless. You should be drawing your own pictures.
But again to Susan Striker, I say, what if what
(27:45):
if I cannot draw my own pictures? Like literally I can't? Yeah? Well,
or what if you just don't feel like it? Or
what if you just really seriously enjoy shading in a rainbow?
That should be fine. Not to speak from personal experience, right, Caroline,
for sure, but stop telling people should that's my big thing,
talk about throwing some shade. Huh. Coloring puns ain't gonna stop,
(28:10):
can't stop, won't stop. Um. But it's not just Striker.
I mean there are a lot of psychologists who are
decidedly not on board as well, and they draw distinctions
between art and coloring. Uh. Kathy Malchiote told The Guardian
that well, studies have indeed confirmed the benefits of engaging
in creative hobbies, whether it's painting or drawing or writing
(28:32):
or whatever, that pursuit doesn't involve coloring in someone else's designs.
And I feel like there's a little bit of like
I want to say, like art classism here going on,
because why why poo poo, someone's chosen creative hobby if
it's what they want to do when they get enjoyment
(28:52):
out of it. Yeah, it's not like people are coloring
and then suddenly declaring themselves artists and trying to sell
their coloring book pages and alleries. Or maybe they are.
They are and very ambitious. Um, and along those same
lines of kind of the the snobbery of it all,
the anti coloring book argument that made me WinCE the most,
(29:13):
which I think was in the New Yorker of surprise. Um,
we're some people saying that this is just another millennial
trend of us reverting because we now have adult summer camps,
we go to adult sleepovers, and we're trying to recapture
(29:34):
this childhood that never even really existed. And look at
us now, we're just coloring. So we're just infantilizing ourselves.
Which I say what you said earlier, like maybe you
should go color and calm down a little bit and
let let me relax how I care to. It's a
much healthier way of relaxing than a lot of other
things we could be doing. Exactly, and I emphatically say
(29:54):
that no, this is not quote unquote just a millennial trend.
Sure there are people around our age and younger who
are doing it and creating like really those really quirky,
funny coloring books that we mentioned earlier in the podcast,
But I'm sorry, Like, when you go on articles and
think pieces about coloring and coloring books, inevitably the women
(30:16):
who are quoted and the women who are commenting are
really closer to our mother's ages than they are ours.
And would you say the same thing for guys who
pop up in those articles and comments sections. I would
say the same and we will talk a little bit
more about gender divisions and coloring books and characters and
all of that stuff. But yeah, it does seem to be, like,
(30:39):
I mean, kind of a lady pastime. But really that
age division is what jumped out to me. Well, and
that's one reason too why the Guardian publish an article
on the health risks of coloring, which I know that
might sound wild, but I mean, particularly for these older
people who might have if they are hard, they might
(31:00):
just have like extra time and they will people will
color for hours and hours, like the people they were
interviewing for this article color for like four plus hours
a day. Um. And the one woman, for instance, who
kind of kicked off the story has I don't know
if it was carpal tunnel, but she has to put
on like a handbrace and a back brace and a
(31:20):
you know, she has to ice her neck all these
things just to get her ready to color. Because if
you are gripping that little crayon and you're hunched over
the coloring book or the piece of paper, it's not
very good for you to sit like that for four hours,
especially like you know, I I remember being a student
in high school and college and taking endless notes and
(31:42):
writing endless papers by hand. Um, and so I was
just conditioned to it. But yeah, that first time that
I took those colored pencils out of the box to
color in my calendar, um, yeah, my hand hurt real fast.
And one of the people in that article equates it
to basically running a marathon if you're not even that
much of a jogger. Basically, like you've got to prep
(32:03):
You've got to prepare yourself and know how to know
how to stretch and take breaks, uh, and condition yourself.
They talked about using splints and braces and support tape
soak your wrist or your hand in hot wax or
EPs some salt. One woman was like, Oh, I just
go get a manicure so that I can get a
hand massage. You soak your hand in hot wax? Oh,
you know, like when you go too. Have you ever
(32:24):
gone to a spa and gotten the wax on your hands?
I guess not. It's in like And I'm not kidding.
I'm sure that there are salons and spas out there
who like have something that's specifically for this purpose, but
they're seriously like wax and it's just warm. It's not
like it's not like the Ricky Martin video where you're
pouring like hot candle wax on some guy's chest. Like
it's a croc pot set too low and they put
(32:47):
wax in it and you just like soak and it's
suppist to lock in moisture or whatever, and and I
can't vouch for any effectiveness, but it sure feels really cool. Yeah.
When I heard a soak in hot wax, I just
thought of like the hot wax they used to wax
your eyebrows. That does sound incredibly painful, but no, I
mean yeah, I mean that does sound incredibly painful, And
(33:08):
there are painful ways to go about coloring. But I
mean there are people who I mean specifically women who
were quoted in the article is saying that it took
their minds off of not only mental health stuff of
like whatever depression or anxiety they were feeling that day,
but also takes their mind off of the back pain.
And I guess that that does come down to how
(33:29):
you're doing it, if you are sitting properly, if you're
in an ergonomic setup and not stressing your muscles out
too much to help avoid like worsening or getting period
aches and pains. Well, when coloring books were first invented,
that seems weird to call it something invented, but obviously
they were, you know, the first ones when they were invented.
(33:51):
Of course we didn't have crayons. We weren't gripping onto
our crayons because when they arrived in the late nineteenth century,
they were actually called painting books because no crayons. And
in eighteen eighty the Little Folks Painting Book is considered
the first popular painting book or the kind of early
(34:13):
coloring book. Yeah, and so their popularity was really helped
along by better printing technology and cheaper paper. Uh, something
that some of those Amazon reviewers of the C Word
Coloring Book would just not be pleased with. Um. But
the thing is, it's hard to pin down exactly when
we got our first painting book or coloring book because
there was no copyright law, so illustrations were just stolen
(34:37):
willy nilly. And one of those early painting book illustrators
who had her stuff stolen was Kate Greenaway. And this
is really just this a little historical side note, but
I thought it was worth mentioning. Her illustrations were in
some of those earliest coloring books, the Little Folks Painting Book,
but also the Little Folks Nature Painting Book. Um, but
(35:00):
we're not sure, like did she actually create those images
for the coloring books or were they stolen by the publisher.
A lot of people seem to think that they were
kind of just ripped off. Yeah, I mean she Kate
Greenaway too seems like the Charles Dana Gibson of like
children's culture and fashion of the time. So Charles Sana
Gibson being the illustrator who created the Gibson Girls silhouette
(35:22):
and style and Kate Greenaways drawings or illustrations of children
and also their clothes were extremely influential in what the
little children's little folks as they called them, we're wearing. UM,
and early education experts I guess is in the around
the turn of the century encourage using coloring books to
(35:44):
promote creative freedom, and by the nineteen twenties even newspapers
were printing them. So a little bit different than what
you hear from the skeptical art therapists today. Um. But
when you move into the subversive sixties, and this is
coming from a great article over at the New Republic,
you get some of the first adult coloring books. But
(36:06):
they were really kind of more specialized political cartoon rather
than mindfulness practice. Uh. They focused on fears ranging from
national security and communists, to sex and mental illness, to
even office culture. And speaking of office culture, in ninety one,
the supposedly, I guess, first adult coloring book was called
(36:26):
the Executive Coloring Book, and it was created by three
Chicago ad guys who used it to mock office culture
as conformists, and they walked you through these really dreary
scenarios with even drearier captions like this is my suit,
color it gray? Or I will lose my job. This
is my train. It takes me to my office every day.
(36:49):
You meet lots of interesting people on the train. Color
them all gray. Oh, but they do add color. Uh.
This is my pill. It is round, it is pink.
It makes me not care. When I first saw those
I was astounded that they were from the sixties because
the humor and style feels so modern. Yeah, I mean,
(37:09):
snark is timeless, I guess yeah. Um. In nineteen sixty two,
apparently again they were. They were a hit. Sales of
adult coloring books hit one million dollars um. The JFK
Coloring Book by Mort Drucker top the New York Times
bestseller list for fourteen weeks, along with job Nation's New
(37:30):
Frontier Coloring Book, which made fun of the Red Scare,
and the John Birch Society Coloring Book, which mocked conspiracy theories.
And the same year, Barber Streisand had a single called
My Coloring Book. Yeah, she's all crooning about, like, get
your crayons ready and color me. Color to me. I
(37:51):
don't know which one it is. I like to imagine
it's color me because then I just think of Jack
and Rose from Titanic, and and then I wish she
had said, like, color me like one of your punch girls. Well,
and I want to send those New York Times bestseller
lists from the early nineteen sixties to whoever they quoted
in that New Yorker piece to see say, see, look,
(38:12):
it's not it's not just us millennials, right, yeah, exactly.
And just a year later, in nineteen sixty three, uh,
the Washington Post was reporting on a doctor who proposed
using a coloring book as a diagnostic tool to classify
people with different mental illnesses. And I mean, there you
go again, having that idea of coloring book as therapy,
(38:36):
which Carl Young had sort of, uh pioneered. But I
think it's interesting this speaking of Carl Young. In the sixties,
these adult coloring books were exploding right as interest in
Freudian psychoanalysis and child development was coming back into vogue.
It was giving adults, perhaps as the people over the
(38:56):
New Republic posit, a chance to return into childhood and
reject the system. And they say that maybe these coloring
books were normalized for this particular generation, even if it
was just snark, even if it wasn't literally to color um.
Because this was the first generation to grow up with crayons,
for instance, as a common household item rather than as
(39:17):
a luxury. And importantly, the last generation before education experts,
specifically this guy, Victor Lowenfeld, rejected coloring books as stunting
to children's innate creativity. So we had seen him. What
Kristin said a little bit ago that around the turn
of the century, those early education experts were like, yes,
use coloring books to help spur creativity. Well, then Lowenfeld
(39:40):
comes around, I think he and Susan Striker would get
along great and says, the youngster is supposed to color
within the lines, and some youngsters seem to enjoy this activity.
This enjoyment maybe because these youngsters do not have to
think for themselves, ouch Lowenfeld, And so he expresses all
this concern on kids dependency upon someone else's outline. He
(40:04):
wants to see children not only coloring outside the lions,
but literally and figuratively, but just creating their own stuff.
And the thing is, if we jump forward to today
and with those kids all grown up and coloring, I think,
regardless of what any skeptical psychologists or Susan Strikers might say,
(40:24):
we're going to keep coloring. I mean, and this might
be a flash in the pan kind of trend, but
people seem to be deriving so much enjoyment out of it,
and it's so social media ready that, I mean, it
makes so much sense why we're seeing a resurgence. But
we were wondering with all of this, is this resurgence
(40:46):
gendered at all? And there hasn't been We we couldn't
find any studies on the gender breakdown of adult colorers,
but anecdotally, like you said, it does seem to be
more older women who are both interviewed about their coloring
habits and also commenting on these articles. Yeah, yeah, and
when men, when men do chime in, they're also a
(41:08):
little bit older. And we also wondered about the people
who are designing and creating these books, but again it's
just kind of anecdotal evidence. It seems to be largely
women artists and art therapists creating these books. And really
the only guy authors and creators we've even mentioned or
we came across were the ones from the nineteen sixties
(41:30):
who were creating those snarky, subversive books, And so I
I wonder about that division. So you've got dudes from
the ad world creating snarky, subversive commentary as coloring books. Uh,
And then today's landscape seems to be a lot of
women creating very in earnest, very like beautiful artistic, you know,
(41:51):
forest themed creations for people to color. But then you
also have a lot of women who are making and
also sharing the snarky, sob burst of coloring books more
along the lines of like the Hillary Clinton coloring book
or the unicorns or jerks. So, I mean, it's it
seems like that's still alive and well. And from what
(42:13):
I've noticed on social media in terms of what ladies
seem to love sharing with each other, are more of
those coloring books that allows us to express frustrations of
gender discrimination or body shaming or issues like that, or
celebrate people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Hillary Clinton. Yeah,
which again is like, of course, it's total social media
(42:34):
heaven all of those memes. Coloring books kind of just
fit right into that. But we did find a study
that looked at the coloring books themselves, and this was
coming from the journal Sex Roles In researchers looked at
eight dred and eighty nine characters. Why they didn't take
it to eight nine. Uh in fifties six coloring books,
(42:57):
and they found that gender stereotypes are pretty common, and
these were specifically coloring books for kids. Yeah, so the
gender stereotyping manifested in male characters being more active, being
likelier to carry out gender neutral activities, and also mostly
depicted as animals, adults, and superheroes. But what did the
(43:17):
ladies do? They were more likely to be depicted as
children or some animals, but probably animals with long eyelashes,
so that we know that they're girls, right, exactly? How
else do you know? No? I don't think there is
biologically any other way to tell. I'm pretty sure you're right. Yeah,
So I wonder, like, does it doesn't matter if coloring
(43:37):
book characters are gender stereotypical? I mean, I guess you
could argue that it does if it's kids that during
those ages when their gender schemas are forming. Absolutely, because
of all the time spent hunched over those images imagining
themselves little little squirrels with long eyelashes. Yeah, you you
(43:59):
put eyelashes on Superman, do it, which makes him a lady.
But listeners were really curious to hear from you whether
you've popped on the adult coloring train because I mean,
it does seem to be a really common form of
self care now for people who deal with anxiety and
other kinds of kind of just daily mental health issues.
(44:20):
It's a nice way to press the pause button. It's
a nice way to I mean, for better or worse,
it is a nice way to empty out your mind sometimes.
Although like, who's to say that you're not mulling over
your freaking problems as you color. Come on, I want
to give people more credit than Susan Striker and psychologists are. Yeah,
(44:41):
quite possibly. We can multitask even while coloring. Oh my god, incredible.
I can plan what I'm going to buy at the
grocery store. Well listeners, Mom Stubb at house stuffworks dot
com is where you can write to us and send
us photos of your coloring if you would like to.
Or you can also tweet us at stuff Podcasts or
tag us on Instagram if you've got any special drawings
(45:04):
or colorings you want to share with us, and we've
got some messages to share with you. We come right
back from a quick break, So Kristen. Using the amazing
Legacy box service, my parents have been able to ship
off my mother's old family movies, all of these reels
that I'm hoping fingers crossed show really embarrassing images of
(45:27):
my mother as a small child. Well, and then what's
going to happen to those reels that they have sent
off to Legacy Box, which is located in Chatanooga, Tennessee,
is that they will then be digitally transformed into digital
files that your mom can watch and post on Facebook
(45:47):
over and over again to share with all of us.
And whether you have old film reels, VHS tapes, cassette tapes,
whatever the format of your outdated memories, you can get
them digitally pressed nerved with Legacy Box. Yeah, Legacy Box
makes it really easy. They send you a kit that
you fill with all of the formats in your collection
(46:07):
and then send it back prepaid. In a few weeks.
You'll get your originals back along with DVDs and digital
files ready to share and enjoy. And right now we
have a deal for you guys. Go to legacy box
dot com slash mom stuff for a special offer. You
can get forty percent off your Legacy Box order by
(46:29):
just going to legacy box dot com slash mom stuff
and using the code mom stuff, So don't wait. Preserve
those memories today with legacy Box. That's legacy box dot com,
slash mom stuff, use code mom stuff, and now back
to the show. Okay, so we have a couple more
(46:53):
letters from our interview with boss up founder Emily Aries.
She really struck a nerve with people, and I'm glad
you guys enjoyed the talk. Um. This one is from Bo.
Bo says that the podcast was so recognizable. Life itself is,
even apart from my working life, quite a challenge, even
without doing much. This is because I'm chronically depressed. Of course,
I'm not walking around like a train wreck all day,
(47:15):
but it's always sort of on your mind. It's quite
hard to summarize my depression in a few sentences, but
I'll try. From the age of six, I realized that
I really didn't want to live. Yes, from the tender
age of six, I was overthinking my own mortality, getting
older and becoming more aware that not wanting to live
isn't exactly standard. I figured I should just sit it
out as long as there are people who care about me.
There are a few ways to cope with life. After
(47:37):
accepting this, you could just make the most of it
and do fun stuff to make it all actually bearable.
For example, But instead of the fun route, I created
a route that isn't making it easy on myself. I
chose to neglect myself and focus on other people. Making
myself happy feelt unattainable, but I was very able to
make others happy, and their happiness gives me short burst
of at least feeling a bit useful. But in the
(47:59):
law round, this isn't a sustainable route, all the more
because I didn't acknowledge that I was depressed. This focusing
on others and feeling excessively responsible for them is something
I'm used to doing in my working life too. I
feel like I should do my very best all the time,
even if it costs my own health and happiness. This
caused my first massive collapse at the age of twenty three.
I managed to get to work, but there I suddenly
(48:21):
felt paralyzed and drained from any emotions and energy. From there,
I started the trajectory of managing the depression, which continues today.
I am twenty nine. Now I need regular therapy sessions, antidepressants,
and regular trips to a physical therapist to loosen up
my back. A mental stiffening tends to stiffen your physique
to to help me through my daily life. The way
I approach life is the problem, the problems you talked
(48:43):
about on the podcast or things I continually face. Two,
I feel totally stuck in this cycle of feeling responsible
in a disproportionate way, working extremely hard to manage the
unrealistic workload, and people expecting me to work this hard.
To wait your wish is my command type of level.
Because I don't say no enough. It can be so
hard to explain that sometimes it just is too much
when the usual reaction is yeah, I totally understand, and
(49:06):
I certainly don't mean to pressure you, but um, and
then they overcharge me anyway. So Bo goes on to
say that she really had to get back to life
in a step by step, day by day way, getting
outside of my house and among people, which I did
with tears in my eyes and afraid anyone would ask
me something, et cetera. You can imagine, I'm really eager
to break this cycle before it gets worse. So hearing
(49:26):
your podcast was so nice knowing you're not the only
one struggling. You know that obviously, but someone sharing their
experience is so nice, and knowing there are women like
Emily aries who are working to change things for women
like me is super comforting. I will certainly check out
the boss step site as it sounded very inspiring. So Bo,
I'm sorry about your struggles, but I'm so glad we
could help in any little way. Well, I've got a
(49:48):
letter here from Morgan, who we had the pleasure of
meeting at our meetup in Nashville not too long ago,
and Morgan wrote, first, I want to say how much
I love this show in a pre shit, how much
passion you to put into everything. It really helps me
through my busy days. And speaking of busy days, I
know all too well the woes and struggles of time
management and the feeling of burnout. I'm a twenty five
(50:10):
year old mother of two girls under five, a fundraising
coordinator and secretary on the board for a nonprofit. My
husband and I, along with a few friends, started the
photographer and Facebook administrator for said nonprofit and a local
car show, and that's just what I volunteer for. I
recently started working for the family business and making an
income as a marketing and catering manager, and that's a mouthful.
(50:32):
I know juggling is my act in this side show life,
and let me tell you, stressful doesn't even begin to
describe it. I've dealt with depression for a long time,
but I've never really gotten to help I deserve. But
when I heard Emily Aris discussed burnout and how draining
it can be, I felt relieved to know someone has
stood where I stand. This really resonates with me. Lately.
(50:53):
I really do feel as if I'm working myself to death.
But thanks to this podcast, I realized I need to
step back to reorganize and prior urtize my values and efforts.
I've done a few things recently for myself and my
happiness in the future, I strive to continue to get
bossed up. Well. Thanks so much, Morgan, and I'm so
happy to hear that. And folks, we want to hear
(51:14):
from you now. Mom. Stuff at how stuff Works dot
Com is our email address and for links all of
our social media as well as all of our blogs,
videos and podcasts with our sources so you can learn
more about coloring books. Head on over to stuff Mom
Never Told You dot com for more on this and
thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com,
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told You from how stup
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Kristen and I'm Caroline. Caroline. I gotta tell you, I
am so impressed with your coloring book skills. So listeners,
(00:24):
Caroline posted a little teaser photo this week, the week
that we are recording this podcast um on Instagram of
a notorious RBG coloring that she did, and it was
so good you did shading just gave a little blush.
But I mean even there's a so the coloring book
(00:47):
picture that Caroline drew was Ruth Bader Ginsburg I think
on a unicorn with a rainbow in the background. But
you even did like shading in the rainbow. Yeah, yeah,
you know, darker on the ends, lighter toward the middle.
Wait until you see the shading on the unicorn's main
Oh my gosh, I just did a close up. I
(01:07):
just wanted to be a teaser so that people would
uh tune into our Facebook live and see it. Yeah,
which which unfortunately, by the time you're listening to this
will have already happened. But that means you can go
on to Facebook and watch it and see Caroline's full drawing. Yeah,
it was great. It was like guilty pleasure homework. Listen, listen,
let me set the scene for you. This was a
(01:29):
couple of days ago prior to this recording, and I
had been working for hours and hours, and I was like,
you know what I need to I need to set
us set some time for myself. You know what I'm
gonna do. I'm gonna watch the down Abbey series finale,
and I am gonna color this picture of Ruth bader
Ginsburg on a unicorn. That sounds like the perfect combination.
(01:51):
It was like the greatest hour and a half of
my life, well that day anyway. Well, and you are
one of just so many adults who was rediscovering the
joy of coloring. I loved it. When I was a child,
I was not so good at coloring within the lines um.
But actually for Christmas this year, uh, we we go
(02:13):
for Christmas dinner. Every year, we go over to our
neighbor's house and have a big family dinner, and the
matriarch of that family gifted my mother and me with
coloring book calendars. So I mean it's like it was
the these intricate, intricate drawings that you have to color in,
(02:34):
because apparently adult coloring books can't just be like simple,
they can't just be Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a unicorn
and it's beautiful, Like you have a different illustration for
every month and you can color it in ever you
like and it and it was really nice. I don't
give myself as much time to do it as I
would like. Um, because it is a nice way to
like have something to do with your hands while you're
(02:55):
watching TV so that you don't feel like you're wasting time.
You need to find a new down n Abbey. It
sounds like I know, I know. Um well, luckily House
of Cards just came back on there. Although you need
to pay attention, it's true. Yeah yeah, well but come
to find out, so in doing this uh podcast research, Yes,
we researched coloring book and it was so fun. It
(03:16):
was fun. But apparently this woman in Scotland, Johannah Basford,
is like a badass when it comes to coloring book
creation and illustration. And it turns out that my coloring
book Calendar is by the now famous Johannah Basford. Yeah,
I mean she it seems like, is responsible for this
whole adult coloring book massive trend and also possibly I
(03:40):
mean the boon to just the print industry in general. Yeah,
coloring books are a big deal right now. And the
way that Bassford ended up getting into adult coloring books,
I mean because she did not set out to become
an adult coloring book artist. Um Lawrence King pub Wishing
approached her a few years ago after seeing some of
(04:03):
the free desktop wallpapers that she posted online, and they
wanted to commission a children's book, but instead she pitched
them a coloring book because people had been coloring in
her wallpapers. Because what she does for people who aren't
familiar with her work, it's just a lot of really intricate,
like ink drawings. Is that the best way to describe them, Caroline? Yeah,
And I mean the publisher was skeptical, Uh this was
(04:26):
pre booming coloring book trend um, but then they saw
her first submissions and they were sold. So her first
creation was the coloring books Secret Garden, which is what
my calendar is based on. It's also a Secret Garden
coloring book. But I love this. It was inspired by
Scotland's Broddick Castle Gardens, where her grandfather had been the
(04:48):
head gardener. And now there are more than one point
five million copies in print. Yeah, and doesn't she now
have three coloring books in the series. I know. The
most recent one was Under the Sea coloring book that
I really want to get. Yeah, she has, Yeah, she
has a couple in her in her series now and
they really are these intricate, uh, intricate illustrations, like you said.
(05:12):
And the frustrating part because I got to the February
the February page just a lot of hearts and leaves
and stuff, and I actually had the thought, which I
never thought I would have this thought, but I actually
had the frustrated, resentful thought of like, this basic box
of colored pencils is not cutting it. I need more
(05:33):
color options. So now I've got a haul my butt
over to the art store that's over here by our
office and get some more colored pencils. I love that well.
And one really neat thing too about Bassford's coloring books
are that she hides images within these really intricate designs
and landscapes that she does. And that's why, um like
(05:55):
the series are called inky treasure hunts. Um. So it's
is so creative and she seems just like a delightful
person in general. By the way. She had an interview
over at Smart Girls at the Party, which is one
of our favorite outlets online UM, and she talked a
lot about the support that she received from her mom
(06:17):
friends up. I think particularly when she was making her
most recent coloring book, because I think she was a
new mom at the time, very new mom, and all
of her mom friends encouraged her to keep going and
create these books because at first she was like, there's
no way I can do this, this is just too much.
I can't possibly but she did well. Yeah, And she
(06:38):
told Smart Girls that all of her girlfriends, all of
these women around her told her that being a working
mum was an inspiring thing for her little girl to see,
not a setback, and she said that they removed the guilt.
They gave her the boost that she needed to remember
that she could do stuff like this. I love those girls,
she said. And it also seemed like she is really
(07:02):
supportive of her fellow female artists and enjoys shouting them
out as well. Um Smart Girls asked her whether there
are other lady artists out there who inspire her, and
she said, quote loads, although she clarifies that I mean,
if you look at a picture. It's not like you
can immediately tell whether she calls it it was created
(07:22):
by someone with a bra. But she does have a
list of other women whose vision, focus and work really
inspires her. So she called out or A Keiley, cath Kidstone,
and also Jessica Walsh. Oh, and also Beyonce. Yeah, so
she has all these different women who inspire her for
different reasons, you know, everything from their actual work to
the way they live their lives. And she cited Beyonce
(07:46):
as an incredible musician and so creatively clever, but also
essentially a working mom. That's true. Who isn't inspired by
Beyonce in some way? Working moms supporting working moms. Yeah,
I love it. I do love it. But it's not
just gardens and flowers and little bees drawn into the
background to find. There are plenty of absurd and feminist
(08:10):
offerings out there, everything from like we talked about, Ruth
Bader Ginsburg all the way to Volvo's people. Yeah, if
you want to try out this whole adult coloring thing,
there is definitely a book or a print out online
for you. Because, as we shared far and wide across
the sminty social media verse, she Knows dot Com has
(08:33):
free print outs of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in various scenarios,
which are fantastic. Yeah, but you can also get a
Hillary Clinton coloring book from Valentine Ramon. Unicorns Are Jerks
and Fat Ladies in Space, a body positive coloring book
We're both created by Nicole Lorenz. You've got the Big
Coloring Book of Vaginas by Morgan Hastings. Girls Are Not
(08:55):
Chicks by Just sent to Vanell and Julie Novak and
Coloring Outside the Kitchen by Casey Landau. Those are just
a couple. But Caroline by far the coloring book. And
this is a vintage adult coloring book we ran across.
I guess, I don't know. Is it technically adult or
more just a sex education coloring book that we ran
across on Amazon that made us just kind of stop
(09:20):
and stare for a moment. Is the sea word that
we can't say on the podcast? Coloring Book by t
Karin Yeah, and the description is over three dozen sea
words of every size and description for you to color.
Originally used for sex education class. Crayons not included. And
while that might sound like like a super vulgar kind
(09:43):
of coloring book. No. Karin had a very like feminist
intention with this. She said in ninety three, I set
out to do drawings of women's genitals for use in
sex education groups. I wanted the drawings to be lovely
and informative, to give pleasure and affirmation. I organized the
drawings into a coloring book because a major way we
learned to understand the world is children is by coloring,
(10:05):
and as adults, many of us will still need to
learn about our external sexual anatomy and tique her in
brilliant idea true, true, and true, although you just might
need to remarket the maybe maybe tweaked the title. UM.
I highly encourage you to go look for this book
on Amazon. Even if you don't buy it, you can
(10:26):
get the cover printed on a T shirt BT dubs um.
But the reviews of this book are hysterical. There are
a lot of people who are very enthusiastic about it
and think it's fabulous, whether it's because they think it's
funny or because it's educational or whatever. There was a
negative review I saw that was like the quality of
the paper subpar, subpar, one star. We've got all of
(10:48):
Amazon reviews. I like that that's a complaint. Um, But
all of these coloring book titles have been flourishing and
publishers are loving it. I mean they literally are having
a heart of time just keeping up with demand. Um.
In Spring, for instance, coloring book sales exploded and the
(11:08):
publisher Dover has racked up ten million dollars in coloring
book sales in just a few years. And I noticed
before we did this podcast, actually, Caroline, I noticed that, huh,
this must be a huge thing now because when I
was getting some lunch at Whole Foods, there was an
(11:28):
adult therapy coloring book right next to like the Yoga
monthly magazine. Yeah, exactly. Now I have seen that exact
same coloring book, and so it, Yeah, it makes sense
why there are so many dollars being driven by coloring books.
You've got the Quarto Publishing Group USA. Their sales have
been driven in particular by the Zen coloring Books line,
(11:51):
which is sold more than two hundred and seventy thousand copies.
They've got titles like Color Me Calm and Color Me Happy,
which were aided by art therapist Lacy Mucklow working with
artist Angela Porter. And you have more and more publishers
and booksellers getting in on the game too, and it
seems like they're either going the funny route with titles
(12:13):
like Himming Waisted or more meditative with the color Your
Way to Calm. They're so much conversation now um and
social media posts about anxiety and coloring and how it
can induce that meditative state. And as a result, though,
coloring books have consistently been in the top fifteen bestsellers
(12:35):
on Amazon, and Johanna Bassford's Secret Garden was Amazon's number
one best seller for a while. Yeah, and so, I
mean publishers are stoked, like obviously, like is this bringing
back print? It's probably it's not going to do anything
for newspapers. Sorry, but I mean, it really is getting
people to look away from their screens for a while,
(12:58):
even if they then do immediately go and post pictures
on social of their coloring like I did, which is
no big deal. And what I would not have guessed
about all of this is how this trend that we're
seeing now in the States started in France. Yeah, yeah,
I love it so coloring. Adult coloring came into vogue
in France a couple of years ago. In twenty twelve
(13:20):
with the book Art Therapy, one hundred anti stress coloring
pages featuring mandola like designs promising relaxation support. And the
success of this book prompted a whole series, which has
gone on to sell more than two point five million
copies in France and one million in eighteen other countries
around the world. And what's so great is that pretty
(13:42):
soon even fashion houses like Eve St Laurent we're getting
in on the fun, and air Maze, for instance, released
their own twelve page, one hundred and sixty dollar coloring
book that featured animals and clothes. Oh, let me just
rush out and buy myself just a few copy of that.
Just well, some to use this kindling in the fire,
(14:04):
but one to keep it actually color. Um. And of
course there's an Atlantic think piece about this. Yeah there,
Actually there's a couple. I was about to say, yeah,
there's more than one, um. But in this think piece
they say that a contributing factor to this starting in France,
is that French people are some of the most depressed
(14:25):
and anxious in the world, which I also didn't know.
I had no idea. Yeah. According to the World Health
Organization in twentleven, they found that France's lifetime rate of
major depression was higher than any of the seventeen other
countries that they surveyed. And in two thousand nine, for instance,
there were actually so many workplace suicides that companies were
(14:49):
prompted to hold these things called stress negotiations with employees.
And so what are these things you have to do
with each other? The whole stress and depression and anxiety
aspect and coloring, well, I mean, depending on who you
ask and what Atlantic think piece you read, it kind
of has everything to do with it. Yeah, I mean,
(15:09):
the whole idea is that this act of coloring reduces
your stress, it boosts mindfulness. Mindfulness is a is a
big buzzword, and the coloring book Zeitgeist um. And also
this ties into our growing conversations about being attached to screens,
about how we're working twenty four hours. Essentially we're constantly
(15:32):
burning out and our need for self care. Coloring is
our self care, Caroline. Yeah, And the very skeptical Cape
Mossman over at the New Statesman and just basically ties
us in with marketing genius, she says, by branding themselves
as quote analog activities, the new Coloring books sees on
our half formed anxieties about having a digital life, providing
(15:54):
commercially packaged, screen free pastimes that promised to reconnect us
with ourselves. She goes on to say that this now
analog hobby becomes a total craze. It's part of the
whole night guys thing. And then people turn around and
get on Twitter, Instagram anyway, just to post pictures of
their creations, like you did like Instagram. That's that is correct,
(16:18):
and yes, that is a plug post stuff. Mom never
told you Instagram. Um. And it's funny because I don't
think Kate Mossman is wrong. But it's just like my
overwhelming response to so many of the stuff, so many
of the sources we read about coloring books is like
chill out. Let people do whatever they're gonna do. The
skeptical sources you mean, yeah, oh yeah, I mean. And
(16:40):
and it is funny when you see people who are
so passionate about coloring books. But that almost like warms
my cold dead heart a little bit more. The skeptical
stuff is just like, guys, why do we care what
other people are doing with their colored pencils? I mean,
and I have oh god, I hate that I'm saying
this out loud, but I have not yet found the time, Caroline,
to sit down and try out coloring, you know, as
(17:04):
you know, as an adult. Um. But what you've talked about,
and also what we've read from people like Julie Beck
in The Atlantic makes total sense. I mean she describes
it as a form of meditation for people who are
too twitchy to sit still, and that's absolutely me. I
mean I have a really hard time sitting through a
whole movie if I'm not at least being what I
(17:25):
call productive at some point, whether it's like cleaning up
or maybe getting on my laptop to do stuff I've
never told you work. So I mean I should probably
get to coloring. Well. Yeah, and Beck also points out
that it offers the benefit of creativity without the paralysis
that a blank page can lead you to feel. She
(17:47):
calls us the paradox of choice. You're faced with a
blank page and you're like, oh, what do I draw?
What do I create? What do I write? Um? But
when it's a coloring book, it's like I just get
to choose my colors and blend them and shade them
and choose what color. RBGS Unicorn is going to be
UM and this, as we will talk about, has led
(18:09):
a lot of people to kind of tisk tisk colorers. Colorers. Well,
there is psychological support for coloring that does go back
to Carl Young. I mean, he was kind of the
original coloring therapist because he would have his patients draw
and cover mandolas because of its calming effect and to
(18:29):
facilitate what he called psychic integration. And this was also
backed by a study which found that activities like coloring
mandolas significantly reduce anxiety. And so researchers say that it
has this distressing effect because you get to focus on
a particular task, take your mind off your worries, and
(18:50):
it also sort of links you subconsciously back to a
simpler time, presumably a simpler time of childhood when you
did have, however, much time to play and color and
you know whatever, whatever those coloring books might have been.
UM and huff Huffington Post talk to psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala,
who said that when we color, we are actually activating
(19:14):
all different parts of our brain. We're using logic, so
we're coloring existing forms and coloring them inside the lines,
but we're also blending that with creativity because we're having
to mix and match and choose colors. And so she
says that we are incorporating areas in our brain that
are involved in both fine motor skills and vision. Yeah yeah,
hold that pencil just right. But also that it lowers
(19:37):
activity in the amygdala, which is an area involved in
controlling emotions, and it's also affected a lot by stress.
And one thing that jumped out to me in one
of these pieces where a woman was talking about how
therapeutic coloring has been for her, she never goes back
and looks at what she's colored before it. Also, I
mean it kind of reminds me of the yoga ethos
(19:59):
of just sort of letting things go. You're in the
moment and then you just turn the page, or like journaling. Yeah,
I mean if you journal and you just you write
down the days, fears, worries, woes and just kind of
leave it behind. Well, and that echoes exactly Caroline. What
psychologists Antoni Martinez said that we can use this coloring
to enter a quote more creative, freer state and also
(20:23):
connect with how we feel, because Martinez suggests that our
color choices are sort of like mood rings. They tell
us how we're feeling. So if I ever sit down
and just color Ruth Bader Ginsburg on a unicorn, just
fill it all in with a with an unfortunate green,
then I probably need to take a vacation. Probably, But
(20:44):
luckily you can print out more copies of that. Yeah,
And also chances are it's probably just a case that
I only had a green craze on. You you bring
years into work and it's just like scribbled all over. Yeah,
I just have one of those, um like a broken
off restaurant crayon. You know that people give kids those
little stubs. Well, so everybody, though, from psychologists to artists
(21:09):
and art therapists, are understandably dubious about the coloring book
trend only as it relates to like mindfulness and stress relief.
But we'll get right back into that, and we come
right back from a quick break. Caroline, I'm super excited
to talk about Lola because Lola is a tampon service,
(21:33):
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(21:55):
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(22:41):
get one cotton tampons, go to my Lola dot com
entercode mom Stuff. So Caroline, how get someone possibly bad
mouth coloring? It seems like just the most innocent of hobbies.
(23:02):
I I absolutely think it's innocent. I mean, I for me, like,
the only way to possibly bad mouth coloring would be
like Caroline, you should be doing the laundry instead, But
while you're doing the laundry, why not color? I mean
at all? It all just works out and you get
to see the color spread across the page. I guess
maybe I like coloring for the same reason that I
(23:23):
like laundry, because you literally immediately get to see the progress. Anyway,
I like these connections. We're making. So many you guys
are learning so many, like really boring facts about me today.
I would call them colorful facts. Oh yeah, there we go.
Um well, you know for starters, people do point out
(23:45):
that these intricate adult coloring books creations like the ones
that Johanna Basford makes, are pretty difficult, and that they're
like almost impossible to finish. I have only done I
haven't gotten a March yet. Sorry sorry people, But for
January and February and my coloring calendar, I've only finished
(24:07):
like half of each drawing. Oh I bet, I mean
I think it would take hours to complete a bastard
page and my hand starts to hurt. Yet a little
stress ball with those little squeezy Now I should I
should get one of those like carpal tunnel braces. Oh
my gosh, I really hope to come to work one
day and see you, you know, with our standing stand
up desks next to each other, just like soaking your
(24:30):
your little coloring hand in an ups some salt bath.
Oh yeah, no, and we will talk about the importance
of that. Um. But yeah, A lot of people are like, sure,
it allows you to focus, like you can sit down
and focus on the exact shade of rbg's rainbow. But
are we trying to elevate this beyond just a kitty pastime.
Is it really fostering or helping creativity at all? Because
(24:53):
that's that seems to be the main fear, is that
we're stunting true creativity, whether you are a child, old
or an adult, and that it's being falsely sold as therapy.
And one of the biggest voices with this concern in
our in our modern age anyway, is one Susan Striker,
who in the late seventies and early eighties she's an
(25:14):
art teacher. She published her anti coloring book series, one
for kids and one for adults to basically try to
push back against the damaging effects of such a strictly
defined and what she called creativity limiting task, one that
she felt turned children into robots. Yeah, so the anti
(25:35):
coloring book might contain, say, part of a picture of
a horse. Maybe it has like the head, and it
would be like, okay, here's the head of a horse.
Now you draw the res But for someone like me
who cannot, I'm not very good at drawing, Caroline, it
is not it's not in my skill set, and that's
totally fine. The anti coloring book would have made me
(25:57):
so distressed as a child, and that horse would have
would have been a hot mess. You would have just
colored the head and then it would have been like
and Kristen actually just has the Godfather coloring book, Like
draw a bed around this dismembered exactly And I could
handle a bed. It's just the rectangle with more rectangles
(26:19):
for pillows were rectangles and then another rectangle for the
blanket across. Yeah, we're about on the same. I like
your god Father coloring book, Caroline, which probably exists. But
back to Susan Striker, of course, people have asked her
what she thinks about the revived trend. Yeah, she's not pleased.
She says, well, yeah, if you I'm just this, this
(26:39):
is me projecting a tone. If you want to use
more therapy speak, I'm projecting right now. But Striker says, yeah,
I mean, if you want to turn off your mind
instead of turning it up, then coloring is one way
to do it. It can allow you to tune out
of your life. And it's a choice. Should I take
a drink or drugs or pick up a coloring book,
Susan Striker, Yeah, invite her to your wine and coloring
(27:02):
party seriously, which I want to have? Um. But she
goes on to say, because she's not, she's not done,
nor should she be. Susan, We're not trying to silence you.
She says. People really have been educated to believe that
they cannot do art. And I can see where she's
coming from, Like, I mean, how many you've got all
of these math classes? How many art classes do you have?
(27:22):
You know, I loved art as a kid, I just
didn't always have time to pursue it. She says, a
coloring book can help you empty out your mind. Yet
to be mindful is not to escape from your problems,
but to face them head on. The new mindful coloring
books are mindless. You should be drawing your own pictures.
But again to Susan Striker, I say, what if what
(27:45):
if I cannot draw my own pictures? Like literally I can't? Yeah? Well,
or what if you just don't feel like it? Or
what if you just really seriously enjoy shading in a rainbow?
That should be fine. Not to speak from personal experience, right, Caroline,
for sure, but stop telling people should that's my big thing,
talk about throwing some shade. Huh. Coloring puns ain't gonna stop,
(28:10):
can't stop, won't stop. Um. But it's not just Striker.
I mean there are a lot of psychologists who are
decidedly not on board as well, and they draw distinctions
between art and coloring. Uh. Kathy Malchiote told The Guardian
that well, studies have indeed confirmed the benefits of engaging
in creative hobbies, whether it's painting or drawing or writing
(28:32):
or whatever, that pursuit doesn't involve coloring in someone else's designs.
And I feel like there's a little bit of like
I want to say, like art classism here going on,
because why why poo poo, someone's chosen creative hobby if
it's what they want to do when they get enjoyment
(28:52):
out of it. Yeah, it's not like people are coloring
and then suddenly declaring themselves artists and trying to sell
their coloring book pages and alleries. Or maybe they are.
They are and very ambitious. Um, and along those same
lines of kind of the the snobbery of it all,
the anti coloring book argument that made me WinCE the most,
(29:13):
which I think was in the New Yorker of surprise. Um,
we're some people saying that this is just another millennial
trend of us reverting because we now have adult summer camps,
we go to adult sleepovers, and we're trying to recapture
(29:34):
this childhood that never even really existed. And look at
us now, we're just coloring. So we're just infantilizing ourselves.
Which I say what you said earlier, like maybe you
should go color and calm down a little bit and
let let me relax how I care to. It's a
much healthier way of relaxing than a lot of other
things we could be doing. Exactly, and I emphatically say
(29:54):
that no, this is not quote unquote just a millennial trend.
Sure there are people around our age and younger who
are doing it and creating like really those really quirky,
funny coloring books that we mentioned earlier in the podcast,
But I'm sorry, Like, when you go on articles and
think pieces about coloring and coloring books, inevitably the women
(30:16):
who are quoted and the women who are commenting are
really closer to our mother's ages than they are ours.
And would you say the same thing for guys who
pop up in those articles and comments sections. I would
say the same and we will talk a little bit
more about gender divisions and coloring books and characters and
all of that stuff. But yeah, it does seem to be, like,
(30:39):
I mean, kind of a lady pastime. But really that
age division is what jumped out to me. Well, and
that's one reason too why the Guardian publish an article
on the health risks of coloring, which I know that
might sound wild, but I mean, particularly for these older
people who might have if they are hard, they might
(31:00):
just have like extra time and they will people will
color for hours and hours, like the people they were
interviewing for this article color for like four plus hours
a day. Um. And the one woman, for instance, who
kind of kicked off the story has I don't know
if it was carpal tunnel, but she has to put
on like a handbrace and a back brace and a
(31:20):
you know, she has to ice her neck all these
things just to get her ready to color. Because if
you are gripping that little crayon and you're hunched over
the coloring book or the piece of paper, it's not
very good for you to sit like that for four hours,
especially like you know, I I remember being a student
in high school and college and taking endless notes and
(31:42):
writing endless papers by hand. Um, and so I was
just conditioned to it. But yeah, that first time that
I took those colored pencils out of the box to
color in my calendar, um, yeah, my hand hurt real fast.
And one of the people in that article equates it
to basically running a marathon if you're not even that
much of a jogger. Basically, like you've got to prep
(32:03):
You've got to prepare yourself and know how to know
how to stretch and take breaks, uh, and condition yourself.
They talked about using splints and braces and support tape
soak your wrist or your hand in hot wax or
EPs some salt. One woman was like, Oh, I just
go get a manicure so that I can get a
hand massage. You soak your hand in hot wax? Oh,
you know, like when you go too. Have you ever
(32:24):
gone to a spa and gotten the wax on your hands?
I guess not. It's in like And I'm not kidding.
I'm sure that there are salons and spas out there
who like have something that's specifically for this purpose, but
they're seriously like wax and it's just warm. It's not
like it's not like the Ricky Martin video where you're
pouring like hot candle wax on some guy's chest. Like
it's a croc pot set too low and they put
(32:47):
wax in it and you just like soak and it's
suppist to lock in moisture or whatever, and and I
can't vouch for any effectiveness, but it sure feels really cool. Yeah.
When I heard a soak in hot wax, I just
thought of like the hot wax they used to wax
your eyebrows. That does sound incredibly painful, but no, I
mean yeah, I mean that does sound incredibly painful, And
(33:08):
there are painful ways to go about coloring. But I
mean there are people who I mean specifically women who
were quoted in the article is saying that it took
their minds off of not only mental health stuff of
like whatever depression or anxiety they were feeling that day,
but also takes their mind off of the back pain.
And I guess that that does come down to how
(33:29):
you're doing it, if you are sitting properly, if you're
in an ergonomic setup and not stressing your muscles out
too much to help avoid like worsening or getting period
aches and pains. Well, when coloring books were first invented,
that seems weird to call it something invented, but obviously
they were, you know, the first ones when they were invented.
(33:51):
Of course we didn't have crayons. We weren't gripping onto
our crayons because when they arrived in the late nineteenth century,
they were actually called painting books because no crayons. And
in eighteen eighty the Little Folks Painting Book is considered
the first popular painting book or the kind of early
(34:13):
coloring book. Yeah, and so their popularity was really helped
along by better printing technology and cheaper paper. Uh, something
that some of those Amazon reviewers of the C Word
Coloring Book would just not be pleased with. Um. But
the thing is, it's hard to pin down exactly when
we got our first painting book or coloring book because
there was no copyright law, so illustrations were just stolen
(34:37):
willy nilly. And one of those early painting book illustrators
who had her stuff stolen was Kate Greenaway. And this
is really just this a little historical side note, but
I thought it was worth mentioning. Her illustrations were in
some of those earliest coloring books, the Little Folks Painting Book,
but also the Little Folks Nature Painting Book. Um, but
(35:00):
we're not sure, like did she actually create those images
for the coloring books or were they stolen by the publisher.
A lot of people seem to think that they were
kind of just ripped off. Yeah, I mean she Kate
Greenaway too seems like the Charles Dana Gibson of like
children's culture and fashion of the time. So Charles Sana
Gibson being the illustrator who created the Gibson Girls silhouette
(35:22):
and style and Kate Greenaways drawings or illustrations of children
and also their clothes were extremely influential in what the
little children's little folks as they called them, we're wearing. UM,
and early education experts I guess is in the around
the turn of the century encourage using coloring books to
(35:44):
promote creative freedom, and by the nineteen twenties even newspapers
were printing them. So a little bit different than what
you hear from the skeptical art therapists today. Um. But
when you move into the subversive sixties, and this is
coming from a great article over at the New Republic,
you get some of the first adult coloring books. But
(36:06):
they were really kind of more specialized political cartoon rather
than mindfulness practice. Uh. They focused on fears ranging from
national security and communists, to sex and mental illness, to
even office culture. And speaking of office culture, in ninety one,
the supposedly, I guess, first adult coloring book was called
(36:26):
the Executive Coloring Book, and it was created by three
Chicago ad guys who used it to mock office culture
as conformists, and they walked you through these really dreary
scenarios with even drearier captions like this is my suit,
color it gray? Or I will lose my job. This
is my train. It takes me to my office every day.
(36:49):
You meet lots of interesting people on the train. Color
them all gray. Oh, but they do add color. Uh.
This is my pill. It is round, it is pink.
It makes me not care. When I first saw those
I was astounded that they were from the sixties because
the humor and style feels so modern. Yeah, I mean,
(37:09):
snark is timeless, I guess yeah. Um. In nineteen sixty two,
apparently again they were. They were a hit. Sales of
adult coloring books hit one million dollars um. The JFK
Coloring Book by Mort Drucker top the New York Times
bestseller list for fourteen weeks, along with job Nation's New
(37:30):
Frontier Coloring Book, which made fun of the Red Scare,
and the John Birch Society Coloring Book, which mocked conspiracy theories.
And the same year, Barber Streisand had a single called
My Coloring Book. Yeah, she's all crooning about, like, get
your crayons ready and color me. Color to me. I
(37:51):
don't know which one it is. I like to imagine
it's color me because then I just think of Jack
and Rose from Titanic, and and then I wish she
had said, like, color me like one of your punch girls. Well,
and I want to send those New York Times bestseller
lists from the early nineteen sixties to whoever they quoted
in that New Yorker piece to see say, see, look,
(38:12):
it's not it's not just us millennials, right, yeah, exactly.
And just a year later, in nineteen sixty three, uh,
the Washington Post was reporting on a doctor who proposed
using a coloring book as a diagnostic tool to classify
people with different mental illnesses. And I mean, there you
go again, having that idea of coloring book as therapy,
(38:36):
which Carl Young had sort of, uh pioneered. But I
think it's interesting this speaking of Carl Young. In the sixties,
these adult coloring books were exploding right as interest in
Freudian psychoanalysis and child development was coming back into vogue.
It was giving adults, perhaps as the people over the
(38:56):
New Republic posit, a chance to return into childhood and
reject the system. And they say that maybe these coloring
books were normalized for this particular generation, even if it
was just snark, even if it wasn't literally to color um.
Because this was the first generation to grow up with crayons,
for instance, as a common household item rather than as
(39:17):
a luxury. And importantly, the last generation before education experts,
specifically this guy, Victor Lowenfeld, rejected coloring books as stunting
to children's innate creativity. So we had seen him. What
Kristin said a little bit ago that around the turn
of the century, those early education experts were like, yes,
use coloring books to help spur creativity. Well, then Lowenfeld
(39:40):
comes around, I think he and Susan Striker would get
along great and says, the youngster is supposed to color
within the lines, and some youngsters seem to enjoy this activity.
This enjoyment maybe because these youngsters do not have to
think for themselves, ouch Lowenfeld, And so he expresses all
this concern on kids dependency upon someone else's outline. He
(40:04):
wants to see children not only coloring outside the lions,
but literally and figuratively, but just creating their own stuff.
And the thing is, if we jump forward to today
and with those kids all grown up and coloring, I think,
regardless of what any skeptical psychologists or Susan Strikers might say,
(40:24):
we're going to keep coloring. I mean, and this might
be a flash in the pan kind of trend, but
people seem to be deriving so much enjoyment out of it,
and it's so social media ready that, I mean, it
makes so much sense why we're seeing a resurgence. But
we were wondering with all of this, is this resurgence
(40:46):
gendered at all? And there hasn't been We we couldn't
find any studies on the gender breakdown of adult colorers,
but anecdotally, like you said, it does seem to be
more older women who are both interviewed about their coloring
habits and also commenting on these articles. Yeah, yeah, and
when men, when men do chime in, they're also a
(41:08):
little bit older. And we also wondered about the people
who are designing and creating these books, but again it's
just kind of anecdotal evidence. It seems to be largely
women artists and art therapists creating these books. And really
the only guy authors and creators we've even mentioned or
we came across were the ones from the nineteen sixties
(41:30):
who were creating those snarky, subversive books, And so I
I wonder about that division. So you've got dudes from
the ad world creating snarky, subversive commentary as coloring books. Uh,
And then today's landscape seems to be a lot of
women creating very in earnest, very like beautiful artistic, you know,
(41:51):
forest themed creations for people to color. But then you
also have a lot of women who are making and
also sharing the snarky, sob burst of coloring books more
along the lines of like the Hillary Clinton coloring book
or the unicorns or jerks. So, I mean, it's it
seems like that's still alive and well. And from what
(42:13):
I've noticed on social media in terms of what ladies
seem to love sharing with each other, are more of
those coloring books that allows us to express frustrations of
gender discrimination or body shaming or issues like that, or
celebrate people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg or Hillary Clinton. Yeah,
which again is like, of course, it's total social media
(42:34):
heaven all of those memes. Coloring books kind of just
fit right into that. But we did find a study
that looked at the coloring books themselves, and this was
coming from the journal Sex Roles In researchers looked at
eight dred and eighty nine characters. Why they didn't take
it to eight nine. Uh in fifties six coloring books,
(42:57):
and they found that gender stereotypes are pretty common, and
these were specifically coloring books for kids. Yeah, so the
gender stereotyping manifested in male characters being more active, being
likelier to carry out gender neutral activities, and also mostly
depicted as animals, adults, and superheroes. But what did the
(43:17):
ladies do? They were more likely to be depicted as
children or some animals, but probably animals with long eyelashes,
so that we know that they're girls, right, exactly? How
else do you know? No? I don't think there is
biologically any other way to tell. I'm pretty sure you're right. Yeah,
So I wonder, like, does it doesn't matter if coloring
(43:37):
book characters are gender stereotypical? I mean, I guess you
could argue that it does if it's kids that during
those ages when their gender schemas are forming. Absolutely, because
of all the time spent hunched over those images imagining
themselves little little squirrels with long eyelashes. Yeah, you you
(43:59):
put eyelashes on Superman, do it, which makes him a lady.
But listeners were really curious to hear from you whether
you've popped on the adult coloring train because I mean,
it does seem to be a really common form of
self care now for people who deal with anxiety and
other kinds of kind of just daily mental health issues.
(44:20):
It's a nice way to press the pause button. It's
a nice way to I mean, for better or worse,
it is a nice way to empty out your mind sometimes.
Although like, who's to say that you're not mulling over
your freaking problems as you color. Come on, I want
to give people more credit than Susan Striker and psychologists are. Yeah,
(44:41):
quite possibly. We can multitask even while coloring. Oh my god, incredible.
I can plan what I'm going to buy at the
grocery store. Well listeners, Mom Stubb at house stuffworks dot
com is where you can write to us and send
us photos of your coloring if you would like to.
Or you can also tweet us at stuff Podcasts or
tag us on Instagram if you've got any special drawings
(45:04):
or colorings you want to share with us, and we've
got some messages to share with you. We come right
back from a quick break, So Kristen. Using the amazing
Legacy box service, my parents have been able to ship
off my mother's old family movies, all of these reels
that I'm hoping fingers crossed show really embarrassing images of
(45:27):
my mother as a small child. Well, and then what's
going to happen to those reels that they have sent
off to Legacy Box, which is located in Chatanooga, Tennessee,
is that they will then be digitally transformed into digital
files that your mom can watch and post on Facebook
(45:47):
over and over again to share with all of us.
And whether you have old film reels, VHS tapes, cassette tapes,
whatever the format of your outdated memories, you can get
them digitally pressed nerved with Legacy Box. Yeah, Legacy Box
makes it really easy. They send you a kit that
you fill with all of the formats in your collection
(46:07):
and then send it back prepaid. In a few weeks.
You'll get your originals back along with DVDs and digital
files ready to share and enjoy. And right now we
have a deal for you guys. Go to legacy box
dot com slash mom stuff for a special offer. You
can get forty percent off your Legacy Box order by
(46:29):
just going to legacy box dot com slash mom stuff
and using the code mom stuff, So don't wait. Preserve
those memories today with legacy Box. That's legacy box dot com,
slash mom stuff, use code mom stuff, and now back
to the show. Okay, so we have a couple more
(46:53):
letters from our interview with boss up founder Emily Aries.
She really struck a nerve with people, and I'm glad
you guys enjoyed the talk. Um. This one is from Bo.
Bo says that the podcast was so recognizable. Life itself is,
even apart from my working life, quite a challenge, even
without doing much. This is because I'm chronically depressed. Of course,
I'm not walking around like a train wreck all day,
(47:15):
but it's always sort of on your mind. It's quite
hard to summarize my depression in a few sentences, but
I'll try. From the age of six, I realized that
I really didn't want to live. Yes, from the tender
age of six, I was overthinking my own mortality, getting
older and becoming more aware that not wanting to live
isn't exactly standard. I figured I should just sit it
out as long as there are people who care about me.
There are a few ways to cope with life. After
(47:37):
accepting this, you could just make the most of it
and do fun stuff to make it all actually bearable.
For example, But instead of the fun route, I created
a route that isn't making it easy on myself. I
chose to neglect myself and focus on other people. Making
myself happy feelt unattainable, but I was very able to
make others happy, and their happiness gives me short burst
of at least feeling a bit useful. But in the
(47:59):
law round, this isn't a sustainable route, all the more
because I didn't acknowledge that I was depressed. This focusing
on others and feeling excessively responsible for them is something
I'm used to doing in my working life too. I
feel like I should do my very best all the time,
even if it costs my own health and happiness. This
caused my first massive collapse at the age of twenty three.
I managed to get to work, but there I suddenly
(48:21):
felt paralyzed and drained from any emotions and energy. From there,
I started the trajectory of managing the depression, which continues today.
I am twenty nine. Now I need regular therapy sessions, antidepressants,
and regular trips to a physical therapist to loosen up
my back. A mental stiffening tends to stiffen your physique
to to help me through my daily life. The way
I approach life is the problem, the problems you talked
(48:43):
about on the podcast or things I continually face. Two,
I feel totally stuck in this cycle of feeling responsible
in a disproportionate way, working extremely hard to manage the
unrealistic workload, and people expecting me to work this hard.
To wait your wish is my command type of level.
Because I don't say no enough. It can be so
hard to explain that sometimes it just is too much
when the usual reaction is yeah, I totally understand, and
(49:06):
I certainly don't mean to pressure you, but um, and
then they overcharge me anyway. So Bo goes on to
say that she really had to get back to life
in a step by step, day by day way, getting
outside of my house and among people, which I did
with tears in my eyes and afraid anyone would ask
me something, et cetera. You can imagine, I'm really eager
to break this cycle before it gets worse. So hearing
(49:26):
your podcast was so nice knowing you're not the only
one struggling. You know that obviously, but someone sharing their
experience is so nice, and knowing there are women like
Emily aries who are working to change things for women
like me is super comforting. I will certainly check out
the boss step site as it sounded very inspiring. So Bo,
I'm sorry about your struggles, but I'm so glad we
could help in any little way. Well, I've got a
(49:48):
letter here from Morgan, who we had the pleasure of
meeting at our meetup in Nashville not too long ago,
and Morgan wrote, first, I want to say how much
I love this show in a pre shit, how much
passion you to put into everything. It really helps me
through my busy days. And speaking of busy days, I
know all too well the woes and struggles of time
management and the feeling of burnout. I'm a twenty five
(50:10):
year old mother of two girls under five, a fundraising
coordinator and secretary on the board for a nonprofit. My
husband and I, along with a few friends, started the
photographer and Facebook administrator for said nonprofit and a local
car show, and that's just what I volunteer for. I
recently started working for the family business and making an
income as a marketing and catering manager, and that's a mouthful.
(50:32):
I know juggling is my act in this side show life,
and let me tell you, stressful doesn't even begin to
describe it. I've dealt with depression for a long time,
but I've never really gotten to help I deserve. But
when I heard Emily Aris discussed burnout and how draining
it can be, I felt relieved to know someone has
stood where I stand. This really resonates with me. Lately.
(50:53):
I really do feel as if I'm working myself to death.
But thanks to this podcast, I realized I need to
step back to reorganize and prior urtize my values and efforts.
I've done a few things recently for myself and my
happiness in the future, I strive to continue to get
bossed up. Well. Thanks so much, Morgan, and I'm so
happy to hear that. And folks, we want to hear
(51:14):
from you now. Mom. Stuff at how stuff Works dot
Com is our email address and for links all of
our social media as well as all of our blogs,
videos and podcasts with our sources so you can learn
more about coloring books. Head on over to stuff Mom
Never Told You dot com for more on this and
thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com,
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
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