It’s no secret that Teen Vogue, and the world at large, loves a good trinket. And because Los Angeles is a great place to find all the plushies, charms, and little collectibles that make life sweeter, we decided to make a comprehensive Los Angeles shopping guide to find the best spots.

I have always been a trinket collector. From Bratz dolls to Beanie Babies, to more recently, Popmart’s “The Monsters” ie: Labubus and bag charms, if it is cute and playful and speaks to my personality, I have to have it. In 2022, when writer Angelina Chapin wrote Inside the Crowded, Childish Joys of Cluttercore, the story and title resonated with me immediately (and still does).

Throughout the piece, Chapin includes various quotes from fellow collectors – “‘One 20-something tells me cluttercore is ‘a love letter to yourself.’ Another says it should feel like ‘walking through a museum or gallery of my inner obsessions and memories.’” That was me.

Ruby Redstone, fashion historian and contemporary fashion writer, shared a post, “My Journey to the Heart of Labubu,” in her newsletter, Old Fashioned!,“and wrote, “As I careened toward teenhood, the toys I collected mirrored a bit of the turmoil I felt inside, equal parts cute and horrifying, covetable and lonely.’” Both writers highlight the innate satisfaction of using trinkets and collectibles for outward expression. As Chapin says it’s, “living inside a museum of yourself.”

In an attempt to further tap into the trinket zeitgeist, Teen Vogue’s Associate Fashion and Beauty Editor, Donya Momenian, drummed up the idea of an “LA trinket haul,” as a few of us were going to be in town for an upcoming cover photo shoot.