It all started with a conversation about the Stanley. My 8-year-old had a friend over, and the friend asked me why my daughter doesn’t have one. (Even without phones, second-graders twig instantly to what’s desirable.) We’re an Owala household, I explained, and that seemed to satisfy her. “Everyone at school is into those telephone water bottles anyway,” she said. I of course had to find out what a “telephone water bottle” was, and so I Googled.
The water bottle in question popped up in multiple listings on Amazon, as well as on Shein and AliExpress. The girls confirmed that it was the one shaped like an old rotary phone, not a smart phone. Some listings have photos that show that the whole top comes off to reveal a straw. It holds about 13.5 ounces, which is about average for a kids’ water bottle. Ones from Yeti and Hydro Flask and other well-known brands range from 12 to 20 ounces. This one comes with stickers you can decorate your bottle with (and while pasting stickers on your water bottle is indeed a thing these second-graders are into, last I heard it was Squishmallow ones).
I’m always fascinated by how these micro trends start, so I did a little more digging. Who had gotten the telephone water bottle first? “It was T.,” both girls agreed, and not only did she have the telephone one, but she had camera, watermelon, and doughnut versions too.
I texted T.’s mom: Where had she come across these water bottles? “Let’s see, T.’s aunt bought her a milk-carton water bottle for her birthday. Then Z. got the Popsicle one, then G. bought the telephone one.” T. got the rest of her collection at Christmas; as the only niece in a family with five nephews, the mom told me, when T. asks, her relatives deliver.
We already have a drawer full of water bottles, so my kids won’t be getting one of these any time soon. But now I know what we should give for the next round of birthdays.
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