Recently, a friend of mine was posting to social media about society's prejudices against him doing supposedly childish things. This reminds me a lot of the whole geek-shaming thing, where people try to demarcate boundaries between what is socially acceptable and what is not. Well you know what? There's nothing stopping this grown woman from playing with toys or reading comics, or having a child-like fascination with games. Heck, these are all passions of mine. And the fact that I spent an enjoyable evening last night putting together the Doctor Who Lego Dimensions Lego that I had purchased at Toys 'R' Us (and no, I didn't need a gift receipt because I bought it for myself). Eventually I really want to play the associated video game but I'd like to wait for it to go on sale (it's darn expensive). I think I may just have to acquire all the Doctor Who Lego (including the additional upcoming Lego Dimensions Lego that launches this January and the actual full Lego set that comes out this December).
Similarly I don't care about age classifications on books that I enjoy. Yesterday I had a blast reading the 6th Courtney Crumrin book (gosh I love that series!), and sometimes I really enjoy playing youthful games like Yoshi's Woolly World. This doesn't preclude more mature interests of course, but just as I don't like people putting arbitrary boundaries around what makes a real geek or whatever, I don't think that people ought to be shamed for enjoying youthful passions. Playing on a playground with your kids is acceptable, so why can't one do the same with other adults or on one's own? It's still likely good exercise. Likewise, board games, video games, toys, books, and films conceived of for children often find adult audiences. I mean, where else did the whole concept of a Brony come from? And why else would there be such adult references in children's tv shows that the kids are unlikely to grasp if not for the secondary adult audiences? I mean, really, it took me until adulthood to watch Dragnet and appreciate, the TV show on which the Mathnet segment in Square 1 (a children's TV show) was based upon for example.
I think one of the positives of growing up isn't discarding old youthful passions, but rather adding on new more adult abilities, understandings, and passions.