Earlier this month, Reese Witherspoon casually confirmed what many of us have been suspecting for a while now: we’re all slowly morphing into our parents.
In an Instagram reel, the Morning Show star sits outside in hiking boots, holding her French bulldog, Minnie, and delivers a line that hits straight in the solar plexus: “One day you’re young. The next day…You get into things like quilting [and birdwatching].”
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In the clip, she jokes that she now owns a digital birdhouse—the kind that lets you watch and identify the birds visiting your yard—and she names them. What she may not realize, however, is that birdwatching has been trending since COVID. Back in 2021—during peak lockdown—Google searches for “birdwatching binoculars” spiked as people found it meditative, grounding and surprisingly joyful. Per Executive Editor Dara Katz’s reporting at the time, it sparked a new wave of “house-bound birders” swapping weekend plans for binoculars and backyard cardinals.
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Reese backs this up in a separate video from 2024, where she rattles off a whole lineup of hobbies once reserved for grandparents—but now sound oddly appealing to Millennials and Gen X. “I just read books,” she says. “I do paint-by-numbers. I have reading glasses, and I drink tea all day… oh, and my new love: birdwatching.”
Plus, over the summer, she leaned even further into Boomer energy with another post—this one offering four-word life advice that felt straight out of a framed cross-stitch: “Stick with the radiators.” The reel, a montage of childhood photos and early-career snapshots, was equal parts earnest and old-school. The kind of wholesome guidance your grandma might tape to the fridge.
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It all adds up to a very Reese rebrand: part birdwatching Millennial, part quilting Boomer. And honestly, it’s refreshing. There’s something comforting about watching one of Hollywood’s most influential stars embrace the same quiet joys many of us discovered between our third Zoom meeting of the day.
Bottom line? Boomer hobbies are back. And if Reese says bird-watching, quilting and paint-by-numbers are the vibe of 2025—we’ll have what she’s having.
A Year Stuck Inside Has Made Millennials Love This Classic Boomer Hobby
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