Allie Joy has loved shiny things her whole life, even before her first rhinestone-studded dance costume. “I like to joke that I’m pretty sure I came out of the womb bedazzled,” she says. Now, as an art therapist and licensed professional counselor in Milford, Conn., she’s become an evangelist for the bedazzling renaissance happening on TikTok, at indie bookstores, and in living rooms across the country.
“I think it surprises people when I say, ‘No, really, bedazzling has actual therapeutic benefits,’” Joy says. “They’re like, ‘You have to be joking.’ But there are so many factors about what makes it really good for our mental health, and it brings people so much joy.”
For an instant mood boost, try picking one object—your phone charger, a paperback you love, the cap of your favorite moisturizer—and bedazzle it. The benefits, Joy says, are baked into the bling.
Why bedazzling is sneakily good for you
Here’s the thing about gluing rhinestones to a book cover: It doesn’t feel like therapy. It feels like something a 7-year-old at a slumber party would do, and that’s part of the point.
Bedazzling is repetitive in the best way—pick up a gem, place a gem, pick up a gem, place a gem—and that rhythm is soothing. “Repetitive motions are very good for our nervous system, emotional regulation, and stress relief,” Joy says. You’ll feel your brain settle and your shoulders drop as you shimmer your way into a meditative state.
It’s also unusually grounding. Bedazzling is tactile—you’re handling tiny objects and pressing each one into place—and that sensory engagement keeps you tethered to the present moment in a way that’s increasingly hard to come by. “When I’m doing it, I don’t even think about my phone,” Joy says. “I’m just so involved in the process.”
That kind of phone-free absorption is refreshing. Bedazzling fits into a broader cultural turn-back toward analog hobbies, the…
