i invited my bestie over to play dress up
you're not hobby-less you just live in the mojo dojo casa house
I don’t have any hobbies.
Or at least that’s what I would’ve told you a year ago. Upon further probing from my boyfriend and therapist, this evolved into: “I just don’t have any socially encouraged, non-solitary hobbies”— since I do enjoy fashion, yappin’, reading, writing, art, and not spending money.
Meanwhile, as a young adult fresh out of school you have a few options for group socialization:
join a sports rec league (volleyball, soccer, and run club being the most common)
play a sport lite (spikeball, pickleball, etc.)
play Super Smash Bros™ or Mario Party™
pay for and/or drink food+alcohol
watch sports, and optionally, throw down some brewskis
These sound great— If you grew up playing sports at recess or staying up late Fortnite gaming with the squad. But what if you were the kid with no hand-eye coordination who made up excuses to get out of gym class? What if your favorite video games— My Sims Kingdom, Animal Crossing, and EverythingGirl.com were about world-building and dress up, and also usually single-player. Where do we go in adulthood?
When I think back to how I liked spending time as a kid with my friends, my mind goes to playing dress up and make believe, doing makeovers, brewing bathroom-sink potions, and making flubber. I loved transforming junk into costumes, forts, and houses for my stuffed animals.
I’d play “dolly” with my friend Madison, dress her up in my clothes and then have a runway show and photoshoot. When coerced into physical activity at playgrounds, my friends and I would act out the drama of a family of hamsters.
But somewhere along the way, we stopped playing dress up.
It’s not worth the hassle of having to clean up afterwards.
We stopped playing pretend and acting like cutesy rodents for fun.
That’s childish.
Why then, can we still play sports but not play dress up or play pretend?
Even worse, how do we make new friends? Meeting new people is quite hard when you’d rather scroll Pinterest than go to a bar or let your rec league down in volleyball. Even the most appealing socially accepted “girly” group activity I’ve found, watching the Bachelor, is still boy-centric. What do we do now that we can’t just invite each other over for '“play-dates”?
Well I’m here to remind you that you still can. You can play dress up and make believe. You do have hobbies and interests. Don’t listen to big boy™. Inviting your friends over to play dress up is not any more silly than inviting them over to watch other dudes run around in tights (see: football).
A curated list of play-dates activities for you 🧚♀️
To help get your creative kid juices flowing, here are some options for creating communal fun— no borax, no glue.
For the fashion girlies:
Slay or Nay: chrome cast the most recent fashion week’s runway shows to your TV and discuss whether each look is a “slay” or “nay”. I also love doing this one with my boyfriend.
Dress-up: challenge you and your bestie to create 5 new outfits from your closet. Play around! Maybe pick a theme for inspiration (e.g., fairies, first day of school, your favorite movie/TV show/artist. Take some cute pics, and then have a group clean-up session together to the tune of some girlypop bangers.
If you love world-building:
Plan a party together: What’s the inspo? The attire? Concoct cute themed cocktails— just recipes if you don’t want to drink. Design the invitations and compile a joint playlist. The more specific, niche, and silly the ideas, the better!
For the gossip girls and creatives:
Celebrate holidays, even itty-bitty ones: Halloween is a big one— Have a pumpkin carving, painting, and gossip night. Or a DIY costume making session. Maybe a witchy Ouija board and potions crafting night is more your speed? For New Years make vision boards together. You get the idea.
Design and play a personalized Heads Up/Guess Who? game complete with illustrations. Make sure to use plenty of inside jokes and IRL characters you love to dish about— from your high school nemesis to Timothee Chalamet.
Long-distance besties? No problem! Order matching coloring books and facetime each other while filling in the same page.
- of recently recommended jewelry making and candle painting which is another great idea that I will definitely be trying!
Shopping vs. Styling
Not only is dress up a fun activity to bring back from childhood, but it’s also a useful one. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how I feel like an expert in sourcing cool pieces, but a novice when it comes to actually putting the pieces together. Well duhh that makes sense when you realize how often we practice sourcing (shopping) vs. styling (playing dress up)! Playing dress up is a great way to get better at styling, and to enjoy the clothes you already own instead of needing the dopamine rush from buying something new.
A few dress-up movie montages for inspo
I LOVE a good dress-up montage. They always look supremely fun— because they are! Here are a few of my favorites to set the mood:
Now this is the energy we are bringing to 2025— girl president, more girlhood essays (because you’re not just a genre— but that’s a whole other post), and playing dress up!
P.S. feeling nostalgic?
(apologies for the obnoxious ads on this site, but it’s worth it)
xx Audrey
Oh the number of grainy photos from middle school "photoshoots" I have <3