Surprisingly, I was allowed to use one of these, when I was about 7 or 8? I was in a so-called 'special school', for younger children and my mum was okay with it (like my interest in knitting), but the step-turd wasn't so keen. The various 'child psychologists' were pressuring my mum to make me behave like a neurotypical cis-het boy and so of course, I was diverted away from these things.

I'm glad you actually got to have a go at it though, even if it has a heavy ball. My one was made of hollow plastic, but then I wasn't try to trim my figure :-)