In a viral new TikTok trend, Black women are showing off their Lego collections.
These aren’t the Lego collections of your childhood—Alyssa Evans, one of the first to showcase her creations in this new trend, has “Lego flower sets, cars, Lego’s Vincent van Gogh ‘The Starry Night’ set, the Pac-Man Arcade set and more.”
“I didn’t expect it to go the way that it did,” Evans told NBC News. “I didn’t expect to find a sense of community because Legos as a hobby is a non-POC, male-dominated hobby. So when I saw other women of color posting about it, of all different ages, it warmed my heart.”
The catchy Black Girl Lego Collection videos show Black creators of all ages and backgrounds displaying “their completed build-and-display sets and massive Lego collections in videos featuring rapper BossMan Dlow’s viral hit ‘Mr. Pot Scraper.’”
Even singer and actress Chlöe Bailey joined in on the trend, “posting photos on X (formerly Twitter) of herself alongside a few of her completed sets.”
These videos have gone viral, amassing thousands of views, with many of the Lego lovers being happy to have found a new community online.
Lego’s vice president of brand development Alero Dawn Akuya said, “We are thrilled to see the engagement by Black women using LEGO bricks as a creative outlet to celebrate the passions they have…The Black community is rich with creativity, inspiration, and positivity and we are humbled that the community is recognizing our products to express themselves and their personal stories!”
31-year-old Jazmin Towe credits her Lego building as a way to wind down, saying “It’s so calming. It just does something for my nerves. I’ll sit there at the end of the day and do them for hours.”
“I feel happy when I finish them. It’s also kind of bittersweet because I love the process of putting it together. When I get to the end, I’m like, I can’t wait to get to the next set!” told NBC News.
According to a poll on creativity and mental health from the American Psychiatric Association (APA), “[a]bout half (46%) of Americans use creative activities to relieve stress or anxiety…Americans who rate their mental health as very good or excellent tend to engage in creative activities more frequently than those who rate their mental health as fair or poor.”
“We live in stressful times, and sometimes our jobs and responsibilities can drain our energy and our mental health,” said former President of the APA Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A. “Creative activities aren’t just for fun, they can help us take a step back from the daily grind, use our brains differently, and relax. Picking up that paintbrush or solving a tricky puzzle can truly move us to a different mindset.”