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Car? Breast Pump? Dog? Bedazzle It.

Gen Z has embraced crystals, gems and sparkles in an attempt to inject more joy in the everyday. Few items have been spared.

Rebecca Williams had been trying to shake up her routine. After long shifts as a nurse in Montreal, she found she was not doing enough after work that felt fulfilling.

In recent weeks, Williams, 27, has found a new activity. It can be done with almost anything: her reusable water bottle, a bedpan, a sheet mask — even her laptop cover.

She is bedazzling.

Like many other Gen Zers right now, Williams is spending her time sticking dozens of shiny, vibrant gems on just about anything she sees. The rhinestones may look like emeralds and sapphires, expressions of sexuality through genetalia, or small, bright pellets.

It adds “a bit of razzle dazzle” into a life of monotone scrubs, Williams said.

“The time that I spend bedazzling is also a time that I consider as my me-time, self-care time,” she said in an interview. “I can just switch my the voices off and just do something that’s calming and relaxing.”

Williams is among a cohort who are bringing a bit of pizazz and glamour to their living rooms, cars or even books. In the last few weeks, hobbyists and novices alike have taken to social media to share their bejeweled creations in hundreds of videos often using the hashtag #bedazzle, racking up millions of views. Some see it as a rejection of the minimalism and restraint that have pervaded many corners of fashion and design for years.

What differentiates this bejeweled craze from previous ones is that consumers have gone beyond clothing to bedazzle their everyday items, such as pill bottles, phone cases and breast pumps. Others have added sticker gems to their own bodies — including their bald heads — and those of their friends and pets.

Mia Jacobs, a fashion strategist at the trend forecasting firm WGSN, said the embellishments are part of the larger cultural push toward whimsymaxxing, a Gen Z effort to inject play into the mundane parts of life.

“The kind of whimsy mind-set is this pushback against wellness culture, against hyper optimization, against the Patriarchy, against burnout,” Jacobs said. Bedazzling everyday objects, she said, transforms them into a source of joy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/styl … wtab-en-us