Shadowing Practice: The Rise of *Labubu* Dolls, Explained - Learn English Speaking with Video
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What the fk is a labubu?
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Someone said on that video,
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that is what a French person calls an injury.
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Labubu.
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But seriously, what is a labubu?
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I mean, have you guys also started seeing these freaky gremlin dolls everywhere?
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In stores, online, hanging from people's bags?
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These plush toy monsters that are popping up everywhere are called labubus,
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and I had no clue what they were until you guys
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started commenting about them in my recent video on the downfall of Stanley Cups.
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For some reason, I had read the word labubu in comment sections before,
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but I thought it was a type of dress that was sold at Lululemon.
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It wasn't until you guys started telling me to make a video about the rise of labubus
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that I finally googled them and I saw this.
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Since then, I have had so many labubu videos pop up on my feed,
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including this one where people shared how much money they have spent on a single labubu doll.
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$130, $150 in a three-hour drive, $325.
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As a reminder, this is how much folks are spending on a single one of these dolls.
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So what gives?
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Why are these weird little dolls suddenly everywhere?
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Especially when so many people who love labubus admit to thinking that they were really creepy at first.
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I say let's talk about it.
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Let's talk about what caused the insane rise of labubu dolls,
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the psychology behind our obsession with collecting trinkets like them,
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and whether labubus have any chance of really lasting in our culture that is obsessed with microtrends.
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So let's start with the very rise of LeBooBoo dolls and how it happened.
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Also, before we even go there, what are these things?
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For those who don't know,
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LeBooBoo dolls are small collectible figures made by the Chinese toy company Popmart.
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They're part of a larger art toy universe and were designed by artist Ka-Sing Lung,
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whose characters tend to lean into a mischievous,
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offbeat type, thus the nightmarish toothy smile that these LeBooBoo's have.
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And despite looking like an Ewok had a child with a Furby in the Smile cinematic universe,
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labubus have gained a massive following, especially among Gen Z.
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According to Wikipedia,
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the frenzy first kicked off after Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink was spotted with a labubu keychain on her bag.
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The obsession has only grown from there.
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People are turning into labubu collectors,
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and like we just saw,
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people are down to spend hundreds of dollars on these monsters.
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There's limited edition ones, vintage ones,
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labubu blind boxes, and those are actually a critical part of the strategy.
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See, Labuboos have benefited from many of the same marketing tactics that made Stanley Cups go viral last year.
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Think of the limited edition drops that we saw with Stanley Cups
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or that we've seen with brands that have been revived like Crocs.
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We now see the exact same thing happening with Labuboos.
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Why?
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Because it creates this feeling of scarcity.
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Like you have to go out and buy more or you're gonna miss out.
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If you haven't already, watch my video on how FOMO culture keeps us poor to really dive deeper into that whole topic.
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And it's the same thing with blind boxes.
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Not knowing what's inside creates this sense of excitement.
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There's a psychology concept called variable reward systems.
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And the idea is that we get hooked to activities that provide us unpredictable rewards.
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When we don't know if our blind box is going to have that special labubu that we want,
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we are flooded with anticipation and desire,
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and when we open the box,
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we either get disappointment that feeds more into the desire,
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or we get this rush of pleasure for having the labubu that we want,
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and then it feeds right back into desire.
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This leads to many just buying more and more blind boxes
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so that they don't miss out on the item that they really want.
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Now we'll dive more into the psychology of collectibles as well,
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but it's important to realize that what's driving the labubu obsession right now is not new.
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It's not new, but it's certainly effective.
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Recently, it was reported that London's fashion retail scene was reselling certain labubus for a thousand dollars.
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And the labubu rise has led to Popmart beating profit expectations and making 427 million dollars in 2024,
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which seems like a ridiculous amount of money made by just selling monster dolls.
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But it's less surprising when you realize how many labubus people are buying.
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Armies of these expensive gremlins.
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And while of course people can spend where they want,
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it does strike me as really crazy to spend
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so much money on dolls that are likely going to be out of style,
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out of fashion in just a year.
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And then what?
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It's gonna be clutter.
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It's gonna be trash.
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There isn't a utility to labubus beyond being a labubu.
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Oh yeah?
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Says who?
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I, for one, love my labubu.
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Oh, geez, it's my arch nemesis, Hat Cara.
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It's the version of Cara who is awful at money and spends way too much on hat.
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And labubus now.
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I am a labubu gal.
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Of course you are.
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But come on, you have to admit that labubus don't have a real functional use.
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I mean, they're just a status item.
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Like, when this craze is all done,
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what are you gonna do with all your labubus?
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Are you gonna stitch them up and sleep on them?
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You know what?
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Maybe I will, okay?
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Who's to say that 300 labubus all stitched together wouldn't make a very comfortable mattress.
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I think if you really wanted a comfortable mattress,
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you would go with something like Birch Living's mattress,
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which happens to be today's sponsor.
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Wait a second, did you just set me up for a brand segment?
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I did, I did.
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I needed a way to get you to stop talking about La Boo Boo's for a minute.
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Plus, I wanted to talk about what is literally one of the comfiest mattresses I have ever owned.
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So I recently switched to Birch Living mattress,
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and genuinely, it makes me so excited to go to sleep right now because of how comfortable I feel.
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The mattress is plush and breathable and I feel like I have less back pain now.
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I specifically used to wake up with this lower back pain
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when it was around my time of the month and I just accepted that as part of life.
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I figured that was normal,
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but I have yet to have any of that back pain since sleeping on a birch mattress.
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The pillows too are really cozy.
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They support my neck so that I'm not waking up with neck
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or shoulder pain and I feel like I'm sleeping better through the night,
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which gives me a whole lot more energy through the day.
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The mattresses themselves are made with really good materials,
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organic cotton, organic wool, natural latex,
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and the delivery process was such a breeze.
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They deliver right to your door,
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and if you don't like setting it up yourself,
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they even offer an in-home setup and removal.
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If you guys know my content well,
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you'll know I'm very much about being intentional with money,
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and I think that quality is way better than quantity,
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and so while I might not be on the bandwagon of spending $200 a pop for a Labubu collectible,
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I definitely am for buying a high quality mattress
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that can help you sleep better and that you'll use for the next decade of your life.
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If you have been in the market for a new mattress,
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typically the advice is to get a new one every eight-ish years.
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Birch Living is having a Memorial Day sale right now and if you use my exclusive code birchpartner27,
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you can get 27% off plus two free pillows with your mattress purchase.
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Use my link down below and code birchpartner27 for 27% off.
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And thank you so much to Birch Living for sponsoring today's video.
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All right, so we have a sense of how Libuboos got big in the first place
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and the psychology behind why their scarcity-driven marketing is so effective.
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But what about the psychology behind why people are obsessed with collectibles in the first place?
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I mean, this isn't the first time that we have seen a trend like Libuboos grip the public attention.
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We have seen Smiskies before,
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something I covered in my De-Influencing Your Holiday Wishlist video.
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We've seen Sunny Angels, which I don't like at all,
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they look really creepy to me.
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We've seen jelly cats and squishmallows
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and back in the day we saw beanie baby collections running this world to the point where people were convinced
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that they were gonna outpace the stock market.
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People were feral about beanie babies, myself included.
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I was like five but I did have a lot of beanie babies.
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I think this history tells us two very important things about the labubu trend.
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One is that labubu's relevancy is on a countdown.
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I cannot envision a world where these are a trend that ends up staying.
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I think that labubus will fall the same way that so many hyper-consumerous microtrends fall,
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which is eventually becoming clutter and this weird meme that we look back on.
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And maybe those who spend thousands of dollars on labubus will flinch
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when they think about what that money could have been worth if they had like invested it instead.
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So that's one thing that we can learn from history.
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The other is that humans love collectibles.
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What is it about us that makes us so into accumulating matching trinkets and displaying them together?
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When I researched this topic,
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I came across multiple publications drawing a very clear distinction between collecting and hoarding.
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Because on the surface, collecting could look something like hoarding,
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but the two are different.
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As this paper explains, collecting is a widespread normative human activity.
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The key difference is how symbolism plays into a collector's mindset.
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Collectors feel like the items that they are collecting somehow symbolize qualities about them.
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It might be cuteness, joy,
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a sense of humor, innocence,
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playfulness, or it could be ruggedness,
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cleverness, worldliness, a symbol to show that you're intelligent and you have depth.
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For labubus, here is my read on what people are subliminally trying to express about themselves when they have one.
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Looking at a labubu, there's this contrast that's going on, right?
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Ignore the face and you have this cuddly adorable figure with cute clothes add the face in
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and now you're looking at something a little more off-putting It's mischievous Surprising it has a slight edge to it
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So think about what that ends up communicating if you're collecting la boo-boos
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and therefore they're meant to represent a certain part of who you are What are you trying to message?
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I think it's that hey,
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i'm a cute person I can look adorable and fashionable and tiny But I'm not just cute.
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I've got a surprising side of me that is a little weird,
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a little rebellious, that doesn't play into all the cutesy norms.
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If we look back at Lisa from Blackpink who helped kickstart this whole trend,
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her Vanity Fair video talking about La Boo Boo's shows a lot of this same characterization.
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She looks glamorous and cute and yet has a unique and quirky side to her.
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What I'm getting at is that we use trinkets and collectibles as a way to express ourselves to others,
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and by doing so we can also try to find some sense of community.
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Something that I found really interesting about the labubu trend is this sense of,
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if you know, you know,
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type language used in the community.
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Like the differences between a labubu and a lafufu,
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which is the term for a fake labubu,
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it creates this language within a subculture that,
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if you know the language,
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you feel this deeper sense of belonging.
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I think that's why people also start getting more attached to these monster dolls once they're familiar with the lore.
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You feel like you're part of a community with its own set of references
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and inside jokes that no one else can understand.
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The last force that I think is helping fuel the labubu craze is,
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interestingly, an economic one.
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There's this economic idea called the lipstick effect,
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and this refers to the phenomenon where,
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during economic downturns or times of financial uncertainty,
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people spend on small luxuries that make them feel good.
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Instead of splurging on big ticket items like vacations or designer bags,
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they'll opt for more affordable indulgences like a $15 lipstick or perhaps a $50 blind box toy.
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Labuboos hit that sweet spot.
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They're quirky, collectible, and they feel like a treat,
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but they don't necessarily break the bank.
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At least, like, unless you buy,
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you know, an army of them the way that some people do.
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Right now, the world is facing a whole lot of economic uncertainty.
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In my video breaking down the tariffs chaos,
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I talk about how prices are on the rise and there's a potential recession looming,
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meaning that many people are looking to cut back on their spending.
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So during a time when people are looking to cut costs,
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labubus seem like this accessible way to feel joy,
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participate in a trend, and express identity through consumption.
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What I worry about though is that,
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just like we talked about before,
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I don't think this trend is going to last.
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I feel like this moment of the labubu craze is really
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just one moment amongst many in this larger arc of rotating micro trends and collectibles.
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Yes, buying yourself a little luxury and expressing yourself through a product,
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it's not the end of the world by any means.
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But stretching your budget or over-consuming in the name of something like the labubu trend doesn't ultimately feel worth it.
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Before we start participating in trends like the rise of labubus,
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it's worth asking ourselves, what are we trying to communicate through those viral items?
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And is there perhaps a more productive,
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more real way we can channel our identity or desire for belonging?
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But what do you guys think?
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Are you into the labubu trend or do you know someone who is?
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And if so, what do you think about this rise of labubus and their potential downfall?
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Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and what topics you wanna see me cover next.
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If you liked this video,
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check out my video on the downfall of Stanley Cups that I recently posted.
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That is where the idea for this video came.
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And be sure to subscribe for more videos about the intersection of money, media, and culture.
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Thank you so much to my patrons on Patreon and those on Buy Me A Coffee for supporting this channel.
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And thank you all so, so much for watching.
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I will see you next time.
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Bye.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “The Rise of *Labubu* Dolls, Explained”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: labubu, trend, doll. Deze video bevat 234 zinnen en 2517 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 13:01. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 193 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. Slechts 79% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| mattress zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈmætɹɪs/ | matras |
| doll zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɑl/ | pop |
| birch zelfstandig naamwoord | /bɝt͡ʃ/ | berk |
| beanie zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈbiː.ni/ | muts |
| trinket zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈtɹɪŋkɪt/ | kleinood |
| downfall zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈdaʊnfɔːl/ | neergang |
| obsession zelfstandig naamwoord | /əbˈsɛʃən/ | obsessie, bezetenheid |
| clutter zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈklʌtɚ/ | rommel, rotzooi |
| hoard werkwoord | /hɔɹd/ | ophopen, verzamelen |
| mischievous bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪ.vəs/ | kwetsend, beledigend |
| obsess werkwoord | /əbˈsɛs/ | obsederen |
| plush zelfstandig naamwoord | /plʌʃ/ | pluche |
| scarcity zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈskɛɹsɪti/ | schaarste |
| quirky bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈkwɜːki/ | eigenaardig, merkwaardig |
| stitch zelfstandig naamwoord | /stɪt͡ʃ/ | steek |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| end up werkwoord | belanden, terechtkomen |
| break down werkwoord | stukgaan, kapot gaan |
| check out werkwoord | onderzoeken |
| come across werkwoord | overkomen |
| get off werkwoord | van ... afgaan |
| go out werkwoord | naar buiten gaan |
| pop up werkwoord | opduiken, te voorschijn komen |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- In stores, online, hanging from people's bags?
- I say let's talk about it.
- Also, before we even go there, what are these things?
- I mean, they're just a status item.
- Are you gonna stitch them up and sleep on them?
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | have had · have spent · have gained |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | are called · was sold · were designed |
| Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding | people who love · those who don · those who spend |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 46 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, gonna, I'm. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De “th”-klanken: breathable /ˈbɹiːðəbəl/, toothy /ˈtuː.θi/
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: obsession /əbˈsɛʃən/, plush /plʌʃ/, envision /ɪnˈvɪʒn̩/, characterization /ˌkæɹəktəɹəˈzeɪʃən/, fashionable /ˈfæʃənəbl̩/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: collectible /kəˈlɛktɪbəl/, uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːtənti/, adorable /əˈdoɹ.əˌbəl/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, kinematic /kɪn.əˈmæt.ɪk/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: craze /kɹeɪz/, hoard /hɔɹd/, dive /daɪv/, normative /ˈnɔːmətɪv/, splurge /splɝd͡ʒ/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: mattress /ˈmætɹɪs/, bandwagon /ˈbændˌwæɡ.ən/, kinematic /kɪn.əˈmæt.ɪk/, tariff /ˈtæɹəf/, glamorous /ˈɡlæ.mə.ɹəs/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: gremlin /ˈɡɹɛmlən/, bandwagon /ˈbændˌwæɡ.ən/, glamorous /ˈɡlæ.mə.ɹəs/, grip /ˈɡɹɪp/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als mattress, doll, birch.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.