By Audrey Birner
In kids and family insights agency Beano Brain’s 2025 100 Coolest Brands annual study of 24,000 seven-to-14-year-olds across the UK and US, one of the many findings was that toy brands are losing out. According to today’s kids – toys just aren’t ‘cool’.
Beauty, food and retail experiences are now capturing the imaginations of Gen Alpha, while traditional toys struggle to keep up with their fast-moving tastes. Audrey Birner, Insights Director at Beano Brain US, believes it’s not that kids have stopped playing, it’s that toys need to play smarter.
The thought of children ‘growing out’ of toys may bring a sense of sadness for many. It suggests a lack of imagination, a lack of sensory experience, a lack of fun. Indeed, perhaps marking the final digital death knell for a bygone era. But, all is not lost for toy brands. Having spoken to 24,000 children and teens across the UK and US for our Beano Brain 2025 100 Coolest Brands Report, it’s clear that Gen Alpha hasn’t stopped playing; they have simply fallen in love with louder, more shareable brands. Toys aren’t so much outgrown as outshouted.
Beauty, food and retail experiences are popping up everywhere kids can see, while toys have lost much of their cultural cachet. To be ‘cool’ and desirable, it’s no longer enough for toys to be fun – they must tap into pop culture and appeal to Gen Alpha’s multi-platform mindset.
A sector whose popularity cannot be ignored is beauty and skincare, which has gained significant ground on toys down to the somewhat controversial rise of tween beauty. Where we once saw a single beauty name on our Coolest Brands list, five now appear. Sephora jumped 17 places this year, and brands such as e.l.f., Sol de Janeiro and Drunk Elephant have all climbed.
TikTok-fueled skincare trends give these labels direct routes into tween culture, and clever, eye-catching packaging taps into Gen Alpha’s curating and collecting behaviours. An interestingly designed bottle or an eye-catching tub is not just a bathroom object; it becomes content for rooms, stories and reels. Toys are inherently collectable and well designed, so while they may not have the ‘grown-up’ feel of beauty products that does appeal to kids, there is certainly room for toys to become the next ‘must-haves’ should the right trend come along.
Food and drink brands and retailers are firmly interwoven into Gen Alpha’s identity; our Beano Brain Food For Thought white paper showed this, and Coolest Brands has only amplified it further. For ‘generation foodie’, brands such as Doritos, Oreo, Skittles and Domino’s are more than snacks; they are social currency. Food and drink brands win because they enable sharing, trading and moments with friends and family, which in turn become memories, and memories become cultural momentum.
It’s going to be difficult for any sector to compete with food for Gen Alpha’s attention; however, given that many toys could offer the tradeable, collectable and experiential nature as food, there’s no reason why toy brands can’t tap into this and resonate more with Gen Alpha
Retail has become increasingly cool for kids, which could be a path right back into the lives of Gen Alpha. Take Target, one of the biggest toy stockists – which broke into the Top 5 coolest brands.
Target’s secret is that it doesn’t merely stock products anymore; it stages small moments of discovery. From famous candy aisles to seasonal excitement at Halloween and Christmas, Target turns shopping into an event. For kids, spotting an exclusive range or a new collectible is half the thrill, and that real-world sense of discovery has helped Target edge ahead of online retailers such as Amazon in appealing to young shoppers.
Target’s rise is grounded in practical choices: stronger supply chains, long-term investment in high-growth categories such as food, gaming and sports, as well as regular refreshes of home and beauty ranges. The retailer introduced more than 400 private-label essentials to keep everyday shopping pocket-friendly while pairing exclusives with popular names. Its focus on “everyday discovery and delight” keeps shelves feeling new.
What’s interesting is that for kids, Target’s own brand is ranking as cooler than many of the brands it sells. This is down to its memorable, immersive experiences that leave lasting memories with children.
This presents an opportunity for toy brands to have a renaissance by collaborating with retailers on experiences, product launches, and seasonal trends and becoming part of the shopping story.
Not all toy brands have been consigned to the back of the toy closet, and two prime examples – Squishmallows and Lego – are leading the way to inspire others in their sectors.
Squishmallows has been a consistent fixture in the cool rankings and this year climbed three places, returning to the top 25. Available in 55 countries and boasting more than 1,000 characters, their mix of sensory comfort for younger kids and collectability for older fans makes them appealing across the Gen Alpha age range. The smartly selected collaborations, such as partnerships with McDonald’s Happy Meals and PUMA, mean that Squishmallows are culturally relevant and associated with sectors which are ‘cool’, such as food and sportswear.
The highest ranking toy brand is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the timeless LEGO. The brand sits in the top fifteen and continues to win affection by understanding kids’ complex mix of interests. The versatility across toys, gaming and animation means LEGO can lean into fandoms, such as Netflix shows, Fortnite, Nike and Formula 1. What the brand does fantastically well is being a multi-platform presence for a multi-platform generation. By age seven, kids are already fluent on a range of TV, gaming and social media platforms. LEGO already has a back catalogue of excellent film and gaming offerings, but they are also building into digital experiences, launching initiatives like a beta Create A Minifigure site, meaning they are offering kids a chance to play and create beyond the physical coloured blocks it’s best known for. Gen Alpha still wants to play; they just have more than one playground to choose from.
While toy brands may be slipping out of kids’ consciousness, the desire for imagination, creativity and fun remains. Toy brands face more competition on more platforms to fill this desire, with food, retail and beauty all offering the same appeal that toys used to. The likes of Squishmallows and LEGO’s collaborations and multi-platform existence can serve as a blueprint for making toys cool again.
With more than a decade of experience across the U.S. and global markets, Audrey Birner is the U.S. Insight Director for Beano Brain. She’s a youth culture expert helping brands understand and engage kids, tweens, teens and their families. She believes the only way to truly understand Gen Alpha and Gen Z is to hear the unfiltered truth straight from the young people themselves.
