Toy-inspired vaping devices targeting youth are increasingly problematic due to their design and appeal, which normalize their usage among younger audiences. The technology in vaping devices appeals to younger audiences by shifting designs to colorful, discreet options like JUUL. More recently, this shift in aligning with cultural interests is mimicking miniature toys—such as soda bottles, snow cones, and popsicles. Trends on social media platforms, such as TikTok, are now driving this surge in popularity.
How Toy-Inspired Vaping Targets Youth
The design of products is increasing exposure and normalizing the usage among children, mistaking these devices as toys. These tactics from manufacturers manipulate device aesthetics to market social vaping products as collectible, harmless, or playful. Devices designed as toys or candy blur the line between novelty items and tobacco products, misleading consumers about their risks. For instance, viral boba-cup-shaped vapes or novelty keychains can facilitate discreet usage, particularly among youth.
Regulatory Challenges and Necessary Actions
The FDA issued regulatory efforts to firms selling toy-like vaping products in 2022; however, enforcement of these warnings needs to be more consistent, and many of these flavored e-liquids remain on the market. Further research is essential to understand how these designs shape perceptions and accessibility among young users, along with collaboration for stricter surveillance to control such trends.
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Contributors: All authors contributed substantially to the paper’s conceptualization and production. ZT carried out the initial research and wrote the first manuscript draft; HLW led the conceptualisation of the paper and assisted with the manuscript drafting; and AL assisted with manuscript revisions.
Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products funded Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science at the University of Southern California (U54CA180905).
Competing interests: None declared.
Patient consent for publication: Not applicable.
Ethics approval: Not applicable.
Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Open access: This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial.
See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
ORCID iDs
Zacari Tatum http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3313-1192
Adam Leventhal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1217-525X
Heather Lynn Wipfli http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9020-2033
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