![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_09.jpg\")
Anna Beth Charlet embroiders during previews before a screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.<\/p>\nHOUSTON \u2014 Most of the movies at River Oaks Theatre in Houston\u2019s Montrose neighborhood are swallowed by the same pitch dark that movie theaters across America have embraced for decades. But on a Tuesday night in late June, the house lights in the theater\u2019s largest auditorium cast a glow low enough for a crowd to enjoy the ambience of a cult classic movie, yet bright enough to illuminate the room\u2019s art deco details.<\/p>\n
Anna Beth Charlet needed that extra light, as she pinched a needle in her right hand, preparing for her next stitch. Charlet was tucked into an oversized, ultra-comfy aisle seat as 2001\u2019s \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d started playing. She kept her eyes on both the screen and the fabric hoop in her left hand, where she stitched a swoopy \u201cAB\u201d monogram above the pocket of a pink gingham pajama top.<\/p>\n
Hand embroidery, she says, helps her feel present and stimulated in a way that\u2019s hers to control.<\/p>\n
Anna Beth Charlet embroiders during previews before a screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the tediousness of it,\u201d she told Straight Arrow. \u201cAnd I like that it makes me not want to be on my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
A dozen overstuffed chairs and one aisle to her left, Lindsey Cooper Trevi\u00f1o had pulled out a cardigan to hem with a thick blanket stitch during the movie\u2019s 98-minute run time. In the seats between the two, Millennial and Gen Z women clacked knitting needles, flicked watercolor pens and split their focus between crafts and a film.<\/p>\n
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This was \u201cCozy Cinema\u201d night \u2014 a once-monthly event at the historic theater, when moviegoers pack up crafts for an evening with an old favorite. The event is pitch-perfect considering how hotly \u201cgrandma hobbies\u201d like quilting, knitting and hand embroidery are trending these days.<\/p>\n
It sounds quaint. Retro, even.<\/p>\n
But event organizers in Houston know that those who see a \u201ctrad wife\u201d image are misreading this room. The rise of these grandma hobbies is a declaration of war against the attention economy designed to keep Americans\u2019 eyes glued to pocket-sized screens. A reclamation of our brains.<\/p>\n
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The University of Richmond\u2019s rat drivers first dazzled the world with their ability to operate tiny cars in 2019. Now the rodents serve as ambassadors for the school\u2019s Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, headed by Professor Kelly Lambert. Far from a novelty act, the animals are part of a boundary-pushing project exploring the ways in which environmental enrichment sculpts the brain, and could inhold potential for solving human mental health conditions. Credit: Ryan M. Kelly\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n
What we can learn from rats<\/p>\n
After Kelly Lambert\u2019s mother died from non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma, Lambert felt what she describes as \u201ctransient depression and low mood.\u201d As one should, says Lambert, who is a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Richmond.<\/p>\n
Lambert wasn\u2019t interested in medication. Instead, she turned to vacuuming \u2014 a mundane chore that, to be frank, she doesn\u2019t even enjoy doing now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time where I felt like I had little control over the stress and that I couldn\u2019t do anything that could save my mother,\u201d she says, \u201cseeing some effects, some outcome that was the result of my effort helped.\u201d<\/p>\n
She started small.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemoving dirt from the house, cat fur and stuff, I found myself just wanting to vacuum every day or twice a day,\u201d says Lambert. \u201cAnd this made me really want to look at these activities that give us a greater sense of control over the world and predictability.\u201d<\/p>\n
She took her investigation to her lab, where she designed an experiment to test whether earning rewards through physical work could boost mental health in rats.<\/p>\n
And the results explained a lot about what is drawing an over-scrolled generation to grandma hobbies.<\/p>\n
Lambert buried Froot Loops cereal, which she calls \u201cthe currency of my lab,\u201d under a layer of dirt. She taught one set of rats they could dig to earn a Froot Loop as a reward, while a second set \u2014 which her team dubbed the \u201ctrust fund rats\u201d \u2014 were given Froot Loops without having to exert effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to see what happens when animals work for their rewards versus when they receive them passively,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The results were striking: Rats that worked for their Froot Loops \u201chad a robust neurochemical defense against depression,\u201d says Lambert. Further, her working rats exhibited neuroplasticity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s this idea that we can intentionally change our neurochemistry or neuropsychology through movement,\u201d Lambert says. \u201cAnd the rats would persist longer with unsolvable tasks. They\u2019d seem to be more flexible in their problem-solving, and we saw that their stress hormone levels were a little healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using their paws helped the rats rewrite their brain chemistry \u2014 for the better.<\/p>\n
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Lane Turner\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images.<\/p>\n
The business case for grandma hobbies<\/p>\n
Nery Lucarini spent much of her childhood watching her parents\u2019 hands. Her father was a tailor; her mother, a seamstress. Between the two, 20 fingers danced all day, stitching suits and ball gowns for their clients. Her life was built on needles, thread and thimble callouses.<\/p>\n
Her face glows as she talks about those bygone years. Today, these happy memories serve as a foundation for a modern reincarnation of her parents\u2019 small-business roots. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Lucarini sewed and sold roughly 6,000 masks across the globe. As demand increased, so did other requests for her sewing talents.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the pandemic, everybody took out their sewing machine, and realized they didn\u2019t know what to do with it,\u201d Lucarini tells Straight Arrow one Friday morning in June as she sits at a project table in the sewing studio she runs in Houston\u2019s East End<\/a>. \u201cOr, they bought one and they don\u2019t know what to do with it, because JoAnn stopped doing classes.\u201d<\/p>\n So Lucarini set up a table at the front of a friend\u2019s shop and taught a class. Then two classes. By the summer of 2022, demand was so hot that she opened her studio, Sew Great<\/a>.<\/p>\n Starting a new business in the later waves of the pandemic was risky. But Lucarini trusted her needle-sharp instincts and bankrolled her ambition with money she\u2019d received in a divorce settlement.<\/p>\n The craft industry is booming. After years of steady, post-pandemic growth, the arts and crafts market was valued at $47.4 billion in 2025. And by 2030, it is expected to hit<\/a> $67.4 billion. That level of growth is about double the current inflation rate, meaning it is driven not by higher price tags but by higher demand.<\/p>\n That rise couldn\u2019t save mega-retailer JoAnn filed for bankruptcy in 2025<\/a> because of massive corporate debt. But it has been a boon to scrappy shops like Sew Great and others that have opened nearby<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lucarini\u2019s business was slow at first, but then came January 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of our classes sold out that January,\u201d she says. \u201cAll my basic sewing classes sold out. Crochet sold out. Watercolor sold out. Hand embroidery sold out. People were like, \u2018I love this, this is so cool.\u2019 And from there on it\u2019s just been an amazing, amazing journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon, she had to lease extra space. She doubled the size of her shop, which is regularly filled with clients who \u2014 for the most part \u2014 do not appear to be \u201cgrandmas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI get people from 18 to people who are in their 70s,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I would tell you, like the 70 to 80 range is much smaller. They\u2019re all Millennials, they\u2019re Gen Xers and Gen Z.\u201d<\/p>\n And they want something very specific: \u201cA lot of people come to us and go, \u2018I just need something to take my mind off work,\u2019 and \u2018I don\u2019t want to binge watch all day,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd studies have shown that you need to cut the screen time and unplug. And when you do things with your hands, it releases dopamine \u2014 you know, the happy hormones.\u201d<\/p>\n The science of the \u2018flow state\u2019<\/p>\n Ann Collier\u2019s Ph.D. didn\u2019t protect her from going a little crazy while she was a stay-at-home mom.<\/p>\n \u201cMy sanity!\u201d she says. \u201cI really needed something to do.\u201d<\/p>\n So she dove deeper into sewing and weaving. And when she returned to her lab, she launched an empirical study to learn how people think and feel when they craft.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to turn the survey off after 11,000 responses because I didn\u2019t want it to get any bigger,\u201d says Collier, who is a research-based clinical psychologist and a professor at the University of Colorado. The responses came mostly from women, though even 15 years ago, she did hear from a smattering of men.<\/p>\n Her findings reinforced her own lived experience.<\/p>\n \u201cCrafting gives you something in your world that you have control over,\u201d she says. \u201cSomething that you can finish. In a lot of our daily lives, we don\u2019t have things that we can finish. It\u2019s just ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n But when you\u2019re able to finish something, Collier says, \u201cit really makes you feel proud of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n And the rewards don\u2019t spring up at the final stitch. Collier continually found people describing what psychologists call \u201cthe flow state\u201d as they crafted.<\/p>\n \u201cA flow state is when you\u2019re completely engaged in something, so much so that you lose track of time \u2014 you\u2019re absorbed in the experience, and you forget about everything else,\u201d she says. \u201cMy research shows that when you have activities that involve flow, you actually have the most psychological benefits and positive mood.\u201d<\/p>\n Those benefits don\u2019t only go with the flow. They keep going for several days.<\/p>\n \u201cPsychologically, one of the things that happens when we all go through difficult periods is we ruminate \u2014 you\u2019re worrying about things, and you can\u2019t get things out of your mind,\u201d says Collier. \u201cAnd when you do one of these activities that have the flow state and the physicality, you stop that process. You have, basically, a vacation from it, and that gives you longer-term benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n How our hands inform our brains<\/p>\n Flow isn\u2019t reserved solely for crafts. Runners hit a flow state. Writers, too. But the grounding nature of using one\u2019s hands for grandma hobbies seems to do something extra special.\u00a0<\/p>\n That, Lambert says, could be because humans\u2019 hands take up outsized space in our brain wiring.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hands are represented in a big way, proportionately large in an area called our motor cortex,\u201d she says. \u201cThey have more space there than our entire back or thigh, even though there\u2019s more physical real estate for that, because you have lots of control over our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n Human brains also give way more space to signals from our hands than rat brains do. So the benefits Lambert sees in rats can be even more pronounced in people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re doing something with our hands, especially when we know that our right side of our brain controls our left hand and vice versa, you\u2019re activating both hemispheres using both hands,\u201d she says. \u201cAlso, this repetitive nature has been correlated with increased serotonin, which is involved in mood regulation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Movement is important to the brain. Why else would the brain devote so much territory to it? Yet modern life lends itself to immobility: Most Americans report looking at a screen for at least five hours a day<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis doesn\u2019t produce something really tangible that our brains get excited about, and you could see how that could be contributing to some emotional dysregulation, expressed as depression symptoms and such,\u201d says Lambert. \u201cSo doing things our ancestors did with our hands, like tool use, building, making and creating could activate those brain areas.\u201d<\/p>\n Think about it this way, she says: \u201cWe\u2019re pretty much carrying around the same brains our ancestors did before all this technology and quote-unquote advancements were here.\u201d<\/p>\n Our brains crave something simpler \u2014 though the simplicity of grandma hobbies should not be confused with unseriousness.<\/p>\n A funding fight<\/p>\n \u00a0The sudden cultural obsession with grandma hobbies is a massive victory, researchers say. But the term \u2014 oh, the term.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels really pejorative,\u201d says Collier. That doesn\u2019t wholly surprise her. Much of her zest for researching the topic can be traced back to a moment when she says her husband \u201cminimized\u201d the crafts she used to escape the mental load of parenting.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, you\u2019re going to regret this for the rest of your life,\u201d she told him then. \u201cI\u2019m going to start doing research on it.\u201d<\/p>\n She wanted to prove crafting was more than fluff and yarn. But for Collier and other researchers, finding the evidence was often the easy part. Securing funding in the man\u2019s world of science was another story.<\/p>\n Like Collier, Betsan Corkhill conducted a research survey and had to stop accepting responses after a deluge.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got 3,500 respondents in 10 days,\u201d says Corkhill. \u201cTo put it in context, a psychologist friend of mine launched an online survey at the same time and scoffed a little bit at mine. And he only got eight responses.\u201d<\/p>\n She smiles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo I was very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Corkhill, whose books include \u201cKnit For Health And Wellness,\u201d found that 81% of respondents felt happier after knitting, and fewer than 1% felt sad. But despite crystal clear data, she says, \u201cit\u2019s really difficult to get funding into this topic because it\u2019s seen as inconsequential.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had funding applications written for us by a very eminent professor,\u201d she says, \u201cand it was turned down without being read, because it had \u2018knitting\u2019 in the title.\u201d<\/p>\n How cozy<\/p>\n As the host of River Oaks Theatre\u2019s Cozy Cinema nights, Alexandra Drake has seen plenty of crafts that would make a grandma blush. This spring, during a showing of \u201c9 to 5\u201d starring Dolly Parton, one audience member stuffed her bra with basketball-sized crocheted breasts. And yes, Drake has seen her share of cross-stitched F-bombs.<\/p>\n \u201cCrafting and creating things with your hands has always been sort of an act of defiance, especially for women because of the expectations placed on us by society of how we should be using our time,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, I think there\u2019s an element of rebellion to creating anything, and saying, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to go into my craft room, and I don\u2019t want to be bothered.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Or, in the case of her events, \u201cI\u2019m going to watch a \u2018cozy\u2019 movie, and I don\u2019t want to be bothered.\u201d<\/p>\n And this new generation of crafters has shown up in force.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels good to have time to do something like this,\u201d Charlet said after the credits roll on \u201cJosie And The Pussycats,\u201d as she packs up her pink pajamas, now fully monogrammed in a swirling, green script.<\/p>\n \u201cTime I wasn\u2019t on my phone, and did something for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Check out our three brand new premium newsletters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 Most of the movies at River Oaks Theatre in Houston\u2019s Montrose neighborhood are swallowed by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-587039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_12.jpg\")
Hannah Mayhew knits an item for her daughter during a screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2283311876.jpg\")
Katina Zentz\/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_01.jpg\")
Cher Trice knits with friends during a screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_02.jpg\")
Craft supplies sit on a table for guests before a Cozy Cinema screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_07.jpg\")
Alexandra Drake stands at the stage, dressed in character, before a Cozy Cinema screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit:Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_03.jpg\")
Two guests watch \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_06.jpg\")
Lindsey Cooper-Trevi\u00f1o, second from right, and her friend Lindsey Bodker do crafts as they watch \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_13.jpg\")
Craft supplies wait for guests before a Cozy Cinema screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_05.jpg\")
Alexandra Drake shows off her boots before a Cozy Cinema screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260630_Grandma-Hobbies_JJS_08.jpg\")
Nadia Al-Khalifah crafts a decorative item before a Cozy Cinema screening of \u201cJosie and the Pussycats\u201d at River Oaks Theatre in Houston, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Credit: Jon Shapley for Straight Arrow.<\/p>\n