Thursday 12 July 2012

Shopping for Tweens

God I HATE the word tweens, still I couldn't think of another description that wasn't totally long winded. Anyway, this post has come about because my littlest sister's birthday is coming up (two days after mine actually!) and I thought, since I've got five siblings, doing a little birthday wishlist for each of them would be pretty much INSPIRED. Do you have trouble finding gifts? Me too. I always leave it to the last minute whenever I have to buy a gift but usually I am excellent at picking out something the person will like! IT'S A TALENT, I'M TELLING YA.

My littlest sister is rapidly approaching teenager territory and that kind of freaks me out, but I think tweens are at a great age where they can experiment and have fun with their style and sense of individuality without being overly embarrassed or beaten into submission by school uniforms, sassy older kids etc etc. YOU KNOW? Plus it's the perfect time to mold their minds into loving the same stuff you love. JUST KIDDING (not kidding).

If you've got a tween (I'm talking from the ages of eleven to like, fourteen here) birthday coming up, how about checking out my wishlist for some inspiration?
Whew! Okay, here we go. Obviously any self-respecting tween will have a journal, HELLO? Journals are a major part of growing up, like Winona in Heathers, you need somewhere to spill your secrets. I mean, they could use Livejournal (like I did) but the thing about having your journal on the internet is that it's never really erased. At least wheny ou're a twenty-something and you stumble upon a written journal you did in year 9 you can hide it at the bottom of your sock drawer instead of worrying that it's on google cache. I like this 'Spill Your Guys' journal from Pygmy Hippo!

Thirteen is the official age you can join Facebook, right? Don't let your baby sis make the same Myspace/Faceparty photo mistakes we did and get her something cool to take picture of her friends with. I like the sound of the pop cam from Fred Flare, but other things like a split cam or an old instant camera can provide hours of entertainment and ~nuture their brains~. Let those younger generations experience the pleasure of winding film on and the anticipation of what their photos will come out like!

When you're a young girl, your bedroom is your private place of solitude, to study, to overpluck your eyebrows and stare longingly at your poster of Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic, you spend ages making the place "really you", which for me ended up plastering my Care Bears wall paper with posters of Friends (which I totally regret now). When you're going through all those feelings you need a safe, cute place to just kick back and relax in, not to mention being a slumber party hostess! This fruity bedsheet from H&M is really cute and bright, and could work with any number of colours in a bedroom!

This red Ladybird collar from Pygmy Hippo is so sweet and fun, at a time in a kid's life where their fashion choices can be terrible and still look awesome (hello jelly sandals, tennis dress and stick on face jewels of my youth) your giftee could pair this sweet collar with almost anything and pull it off. Plus, I think bug print is gonna take off soon!

You need a place to show off your pop cam prowess, right? How about this Birds on a Wire photo hanger from Fred Flare. I have a feeling that I would have thought this was THE EPITOME OF SOPHISTICATION when I was a teen, it's really cute and can also be used to display your most prized possessions (cinema ticket stubs and concert tickets anyone?) in a ~classy way.  If you're feeling crafty you could probably make a ton of these yourself too, maybe in different designs? They look simple to make, stick a paperclip on the back of a farm animal with a glue gun, JOB'S A GOODUN.

A cool bag for school is what we all really want, right? Personally I had a bright pink eastpak covered in Green Day patches, the patches are gone but the bag is still in miraculous condition, and I still use it today! A good bag can last you a very long time, and this Gola bag from New Look looks pretty sturdy to me, as well as being super cool. A slightly vintage look with mad colours, yes please!

It is your duty as an older, wiser person to lead your baby sister/cousin/niece on the right path when it comes to films. Of course, they should be watching recent films because there's nothing wrong with them, but how about showing her a few classics to broaden her horizons? I've chosen Better Off Dead, 10 Things I Hate About You and Hairspray as a good place to start, but check out my Teen Films list on letterboxd for other ideas! It doesn't just stop at films, what about music? A good soundtrack can get a teen girl through the hardest times and stay with her a lifetime. What about Avril Lavigne's Let Go or Blondie's Greatest Hits? As for books, Point Horror are really cheap (can usually be found in charity shops) and much more thrilling than submissive Bella practicing sex after marriage. The girls in Point Horror are fighting murder mysteries, zombies, aliens, ghosts whilst trying to get to prom on time! Teen fiction has definitely gone downhill these days, not that Twilight is particularly bad, but the message it puts across is a load of bull, so doing a little research and buying a stack of old teen hits for her might be well appreciated, especially if she's getting sick of vampires and werewolves!

And finally, when I got to the age of thirteen I was obsessed with having my own high heels. I used to save up my pocket money and buy high heels from New Look and stash them in my room, because my mum had set a heel height and they nearly always went over, then I'd wear them down The Fez Club every other Friday on their under 18s night and nearly always end up barefoot from the pain! These days I cannot wear heels at all but at the time it was like a rite of passage. I would never pressure a girl into wearing heels if she wasn't into them, but if your tween has expressed an interest I like these awesome heels from Schuh. They are SPARKLY! and PINK!

Wow, this got pretty long! I hope you have some ideas for the tween in your life (seriously, THAT WORD IS SO AWFUL) and anything from Fred Flare can usually be found on Amazon if you're fromt he UK, or Ebay. What do you like to buy for tweens? Let me know!

4 comments:

  1. insults2injury12/7/12 18:29

    So are you gonna buy your sister any of these things? Or does she get to buy her own presents, or are we supposed to buy her something? I don't get it :P

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  2. If I were you, I'd go for the journal! BTW: you have a lovely blog, full of great ideas :-) best wishes from the Netherlands xMM

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  3. These are all great ideas! And I agree with what you said about making our younger sisters like what we like (kidding/not kidding!) I mean, that's kind of one of the jobs of older sisters: to have great taste, isn't it? ;)
    I usually give tweens or teenagers "The Cather in the Rye" or anything by John Green. xx

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  4. ohhhhhhh i want all of these ♥♥♥

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