Why Does Blackpink’s Rosé Carry This Stress Toy Everywhere? Viral NeeDoh Explained
Blackpink’s Rosé has turned a small squishy toy called a NeeDoh into her go-to anxiety tool, and fans want to know what it is and why it works.
A NeeDoh is a squishy stress toy that comes in an array of sizes and colors, giving a whole new meaning to the classic stress ball. Rosé uses hers to manage anxiety, telling Jake Shane on his “Therapuss” podcast in November 2024 that she keeps it within reach during meetings.
Rosé held a pink NeeDoh Gumdrop while talking with Shane, who held an orange one. “Any time I’m in a meeting or anything, it’s like it’s always on the table because now I can’t work without it,” she said. “I just get anxiety and like I don’t know if it’s ADHD. I don’t even know what it is, but like, I need this and then if I have it in my hand, I focus.”
Rosé Revealed How She Was Introduced to Stress Balls
The Blackpink singer described how anxiety shows up in her body. “I, like, tense up. It’s like muscles. I do weird things,” she added. She sometimes squeezes her fingernails together, and the NeeDoh helps prevent that. “This is good because like you’re using the muscles here. It’s just like a workout,” she said while squeezing it.
Rosé wasn’t always sold on stress toys. She admitted the first time she touched a stress ball, she thought it was “disgusting,” but then she touched it again and thought it was “kind of a cool texture.” She first encountered one during a meeting and recalled thinking, “Ew, what is that?” — until she tried it.
“I was like disgusted, but I ended up doing a serious meeting with somebody and I got through it like so well. … This just helps,” she said. That experience led to a personal realization: “That’s when I diagnosed myself with bad anxiety. I was like I have bad anxiety. That’s what it was … That’s when I found out.”
How Does Rosé Use Her NeeDoh Stress Ball to Manage Anxiety?
Rosé treats her NeeDoh as both a focus aid and an anxiety check-in tool, pulling it out during high-pressure moments — including a recent appearance on Hot Ones in November 2024 when she needed help powering through super spicy chicken wings.
After taking a bite of a hot wing, she asked for backup. “Do we have my stress ball? I’m gonna need my stress ball. This is called the squishy, guys,” she said as someone handed her the blue NeeDoh Gumdrop. “It actually helps. It distracts you. I think you need a distraction. This is helping me right now.”
She passed it to host Sean Evans, who started squishing it himself. “I need a stress ball I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life,” Evans remarked. “A few squishes and I’m actually over it now,” Rosé said.
The singer told Shane that her anxiety has worsened in recent years, even though she didn’t always notice it. “I’ve lived my life a little dull to that, I think. I only started noticing it, which is why I feel like it only started recently. I think it’s gotten really bad over the past few years,” she said. Friends who worked with her three or four years ago and have come back this year told her, “Rosie, you’re a little different from then.”
Naming the feeling is part of the process. “Once you say, ‘I have anxiety right now,’ things are a bit better, but then sometimes hours pass and then you look back and you’re like, I was going through anxiety,” she said. “So that’s when I think now it’s good that I have this to remind me I have anxiety.”
She’s also coined her own term for taking a moment. “I’ll tell myself I just need like five minutes. I need a squishy break is what I say. You know how people go for smoke breaks? I need a squishy break.”
Why Are NeeDoh Stress Toys So Popular Right Now?
NeeDohs have become increasingly popular for adults, not just kids, because they tap into a sensory experience that calms the nervous system. The squeezing, stretching and rolling give the brain something predictable to focus on.
“The popularity for these specific types of toys, I think, has to do with the way they tap into something satisfying that helps us feel calm,” Jenny Maenpaa, a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of the New York City Psychotherapy Collective, told NBC. “They give us a way to self-soothe that feels pleasant — and it is usually pretty affordable.”
Maenpaa explained that the physical sensation can help a person out of an anxiety spiral. “Items like NeeDohs can pull us out of that, give us a way to feel grounded and bring our attention back to our bodies and the present moment,” she said. “The squeezing, stretching, or rolling sensations provide an anchor; something predictable and controllable for our brains to focus on.”
How Much Do NeeDoh Stress Balls Cost?
NeeDohs are affordable stress toys, with prices generally ranging from $5 to $8, which is part of why they’ve taken off with both adults and kids. Retailers, however, are selling out of them in the blink of an eye.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Why Does Blackpink’s Rosé Carry This Stress Toy Everywhere? Viral NeeDoh Explained."
