As a little kid, my favorite pastime activities included swinging on a tire, playing mermaids in the pool with my sisters at Grandma’s, eating too much chocolate ice cream, riding my pink scooter, and making dirt cakes outside. But, most of all, I absolutely loved to color.
Knowing it’d prevent me from fighting with my brothers, my mom would indulge me in my favorite pastime and distract me by coloring Cinderella’s pink hair (I wanted to be different so badly). She’d go to our local dollar store and purchase five different coloring books. Sometimes, they had Disney characters, mermaids, animals, flowers, or my favorite of all: anything Strawberry Shortcake related. Oh, how I loved to color her red, pink, and green with a crayon, colored pencil, or even marker in hand.
I filled all the blank pages with color, made the books vibrant, and collected them with profound love. Coloring was my creative outlet. There were no rules. You could make each page your own and didn’t have to stick to the original color palette of the character you were coloring.
Coloring was my favorite pastime activity from the ages of 5-10, but as I got older, I filled my pastime with various activities that were more “appropriate” for my age. In the back of my mind, I secretly missed bringing vibrancy to my dearest characters. However, whether it was a lack of time or the embarrassment of going to purchase a “kid’s coloring book,” I stopped my hobby altogether.
I know there are “adult coloring books,” but I absolutely despise them. They’re overly filled with such intricate details that it becomes too stressful to color. I remember going to Barnes and Noble, picking one up, skimming through the pages, and thinking they were better off without any color. I immediately put it back on the shelf, frowned, and wondered if entering adulthood involved layers upon layers of overwhelming complexities. I longed for the simplicity of my childhood, the simplicity of those coloring pages, and the relaxation such a simple activity would bring to me.
Luckily, despite the busyness that college life has thrown at me, TikTok, in its strange and mysterious ways, bestowed upon me a solution to my long-standing problem.
One day, when I was doing my daily scroll of TikTok videos, I happened to fall upon a content creator coloring in a page from their coloring book. I was immediately transfixed, watching them seamlessly color in lamps, windows, a heart-shaped headboard, and an adorably cute dog writing letters, all in a delicately pink aesthetic with a cover of “La Vie en Rose” playing in the background. The coloring page itself was simple, but the person coloring it brought the page to life. It was so cute, pleasing to my eyes, and everything I’d been looking for in a coloring book. I searched through the comments in desperate need of the brand’s name.
Bobbie Goods is the brand attached to these adorably cute anthropomorphic animals. Artist and owner of the brand, Abbie Goveia, started her coloring book business in May 2021 and has since expanded due to her increasing popularity from TikTok. On the Bobbie Goods website, in the “About” section, the brand describes itself as, “A world of quirky characters living out their daily lives. Delightfully nostalgic, Bobbie Goods brings comfort to people of all ages.”
The “all ages” part instantly struck a chord with me. I no longer felt confined to stay within the lines of “adult coloring books,” nor shame for wanting to reach for “children’s coloring books.” Bobbie Goods’ coloring books were and are for anyone and everyone who loves to color.
After I saw that one video and discovered the brand of the coloring book, I went down a rabbit hole of watching these content creators color in pages upon pages of dogs, bears, and ducks, painting by the lake, visiting bakeries, in the bathtub, watching movies, and living their cutesy little lives to the fullest. It was incredible how detailed and vibrant people would make these pages. With the help of alcohol markers, white and black pens, and colored pencils, these pages would turn out worthy of being framed and hung on someone’s wall.
I have yet to order myself one of Bobbie Goods’ coloring books because I only get busier every day, and it would break my heart to see one of those adorable coloring books collect dust on one of my shelves. For now, I shall continue to binge-watch these fantastic content creators bring life to a Bobbie Goods’ coloring page, and thank Abbie Goveia for bringing back the magic and whimsy that I’ve longed to see in a coloring book made just for me!