Plush possessions: Young adults who don't outgrow their love for stuffed toys

Schwarz and her favorite stuffed animal, a pig named Paul. — JOSE F. MORENO/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

TARA MCFEETERS sleeps in a crowded bed. There’s a dory fish; a beet named Claudia; Gordon the shark; and an octopus called Chester.

“I love, love sleeping with stuffed animals,” said McFeeters, 23, of Northeast Philadelphia, a senior studying sociology remotely at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.