We need to talk about personal fans.
While attending VidCon 2025, it was hard to ignore their presence. As I was lurking around the creator floor, handheld fans were everywhere. At one point, I passed the ever fashionable Naomi Hearts and was taken by how chic she looked with her pocket-sized pink fan in hand. It's no surprise she called out the product when we spoke with her about her essential items. It would be easy to write off handheld fans as a creator fad, but when I arrived back on the East Coast to a hundred-degree heat dome, I still couldn't escape them. At a party I attended, at least two guests pulled out personal fans as the room's AC struggled to cool off the crowd. And while at the gym this week, I spotted a passerby cooling off in the afternoon heat with their handheld fan.
But because personal fans were on my mind, I was still convinced that now that I'd noticed them, I had a bias, that is, until I turned to my fellow shopping colleagues. Senior Shopping Reporter Haley Henschel chimed in that her Gen-Z sister had just purchased one and that they were everywhere at the Cowboy Carter tour. Plus, Deputy Shopping and Reviews Editor Miller Kern stuffed her and her mom's Christmas stockings with a personal fan last year. After we all quickly reminisced about being jealous of the kids at Disney World with their souvenir fans, it was clear that personal fans are the product of the summer.
Why are personal fans so popular?
The rise in personal fan use shouldn't be a surprise, considering the intense heat that the northern hemisphere has been experiencing this month. The east coast of the United States experienced a heat dome that spanned from Chicago to Pittsburgh and North Carolina to New York. It brought temperatures that some states hadn't experienced in over a decade, according to the Associated Press.
With global warming's impact, these heat waves are becoming more and more frequent. As Patrick Brown, a climate scientist at Johns Hopkins University, told Mashable's former science editor, Mark Kaufman, back in 2023, "A barely noticeable shift in the mean temperature from global warming can end up turning a 'once-per-decade' heat wave into a 'once-per-year heat wave' pretty easily."
Plus, this year's eastern United States heat wave happened early in the season, providing people with little time to get their bodies acclimated. With the strenuous heat, people are desperate to get cool, so it's no surprise they're turning to personal fans. When you can't control outside conditions or even be certain that you'll have access to good air conditioning, a personal fan can be a real lifesaver, as fans accelerate heat evaporation to regulate your temperature faster.
Their popularity is certainly due to the product's affordability, too. They're widely available across big-name retailers, usually priced no more than $20.
Where to buy a personal fan?
The most popular personal fan models I've spotted are handheld options that come in bright pastels. Most are USB rechargeable, with multiple speed settings and several hours of battery life. There are options that sit around your neck, but they're admittedly a lot less attractive, sort of looking like a pair of not very aesthetically pleasing headphones.
But where can you buy one? Quite literally anywhere. Amazon has endless choices. The most popular options are Gaiatop, Jisulife, and Sweetfull, which are all around five to 10 inches long and come in bright, colorful shades.
Henschel noted that her sister got her personal fan from Shein for just $1. The retailer is selling packs of fans in multiple colors, clearly appealing to a festival and concert-going crowd, looking for a fan to match every outfit.
These Shein models are surely lacking in quality, in comparison to even the $15 models on Amazon, and raise the question of longevity and the life cycle of these products. With Shein selling these fans in packs, they're a near antithesis to the underconsumption core that's taken over social media. The cheap availability of these products is ironic, considering fast fashion's contribution to global warming.
However, at such a cheap price, it's easy to understand the appeal. Staying properly cool often requires access to air conditioning, which can be sometimes hard to come by and certainly expensive. So when you're in the record-breaking heat, why not turn to a personal fan that's affordable and able to provide some cool relief?
