The flying substance used in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is called fairy dust.
Fairy dust helps Peter Pan teach the Darling children to fly before their journey to Neverland. In the story, belief and happy thoughts are also connected with flight, so the dust is part of a wider magical idea rather than a mechanical explanation. Tinker Bell provides the dust, linking the children’s ability to fly directly to the fairy world.
The phrase became a standard part of popular culture through Peter Pan and later adaptations. Disney’s 1953 animated film makes the moment especially memorable through the instruction to think happy thoughts and the song “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!”
The wording is sometimes changed in adaptations. Some versions emphasize “pixie dust,” while others use fairy dust or simply magical dust. Barrie’s original Peter Pan story uses fairy dust, making that the canonical answer for the source text.