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If you want the perfect gift for a 12-year-old girl, look no further than this list of ideas based on gifts currently popular with 12-year-olds (my daughter and her friends).
At 12, girls are teetering on the brink of being teenagers, but they aren’t quite there yet. This makes it incredibly hard to come up with great gift ideas for them, they are no longer little kids, but they aren’t teens either. I guess that’s why they are called ‘tweens’!
I thought I’d make it easy for anyone searching for gift ideas for 12-year-old girls by listing all the gifts that my daughter loved receiving for her 12th birthday and Christmas.
Having worked on glossy magazines for several years, I think I’m fairly good at keeping my finger on the pulse of trends.
Here is a list of the fruits of my labours. I hope they come in useful as a gift guide.
18 PERFECT GIFT IDEAS FOR 12-YEAR-OLD-GIRLS
- The HappySelf Teen Journal - A Daily Journal for Age 12+
- Divoom Planet-9 Smart Mood Lamp
- Multicoloured Led Strip Lights
- Bibi Himalayan Pink Crystal Rock Salt Lamp
- LEGO 31207 ART Floral Art
- Posca PC-3M Paint Marker Art Pens
- Cricut Maker Tools - Sewing Kit Set
- Sculpd Pottery Starter Bundle
- Kids Love Heart Stud Hypoallergenic Earrings
- Personalised Enamel Disc Name Necklace
- Florence By Mills Zero Chill Face Mist
- Lucky Voice Karaoke Machine &and Microphone
- iPhone case: You are exactly where you need to be
- Kindle Paperwhite | 16 GB
- Paper Girls: The Complete Story
Journals are great for 12-year-old girls on so many levels. They provide a brilliant outlet for all the angst, thoughts and emotions of tweens soon-to-be teens. A journal is also a great way to encourage kids to write and allow their thoughts and dreams to flow onto the page. I also know from experience that journals are a wonderful memento to look back at in years to come.
12-year-old girls start taking an interest in styling their bedrooms into more grown-up spaces and therefore begin taking an interest in cool pieces of decor that can be introduced into their room. An app can control this lamp to suit either the mood of your 12-year-old or can be synced with music or movies for an extra layer of interactive fun.
Striplights are a TikTok trend that has taken hold with tweens and teens. They are super easy to put up, and it's fun for kids to control the different lighting schemes with the remote-controlled app that comes with the lights.
Crystals are huge with tweens, so this lamp is everything! It's made from natural rock salt, which acts as a natural air purifier (always good for tween and teen bedrooms!!) and has a dimmer switch, so is lovely as a nightlight.
Lego keeps on getting cooler and cooler. Building something with Lego is a great way for tweens to find a way to focus on something creative and forget about their everyday lives for a while - and their screens!
Posca pens are amazing next-level art pens. Great for kids who love to draw and create. The pens are versatile and easy to use, and the ink quality is second to none. This starter set has a few well-coordinated colours, but there is a whole world of Posca colours, so look at the Posca Store for more ideas!
My daughter loves upcycling old clothes, particularly denim. She is an avid watcher of YouTube tutorials on upcycling, so this Cricut sewing kit was a very welcome gift and has been used lots over the months after she received it.
Many 12-year-old girls love crafting and have probably enjoyed using silk clay and play-doh. This starter pottery kit is a great way to graduate to using more grown-up clay to sculpt and create with.
Lots of girls have recently got their ears pierced or have them pierced for their 12th birthday. So hypoallergenic earrings in cool shapes and styles are a great gift idea. Little Book of Earrings are great for storing earrings if you want a great gift to go with a set of earrings.
I've noticed a trend for personalised necklaces for 12-year-old girls and other tweens. It can be their name or a word that means something special to them. Whatever you choose, it's a great way to gift them something special for their birthday or Christmas.
12-year-old girls are often just starting to become interested in skincare, they may have noticed spots and bumps appearing. Gentle skincare brands with no nasties make great gifts. This face mist is a real favourite amongst the tweens and young teens I know.
Karaoke can provide hours of fun, either solo fun for tweens just getting into spending more time alone in their room (around 12 is when it starts to happen) or when they get together with friends for sleepovers or parties.
CASETiFY is the ultimate mobile phone case brand for tweens and teens. They have so many different styles, many of them customisable, for Apple phones and Samsung Galaxy phones. One of the best things about these cases is that they pretty much guarantee the phone becomes unbreakable - not a small thing for parents of 12-year-olds!! Take a look at their whole range for oodles of inspiration.
Getting kids to read often feels like an uphill struggle in this age of screens and instant dopamine hits from social media. A Kindle paperwhite is a great way to encourage them to read actual books and load it up with some well-researched tween favourites.
Papergirls are the graphic novel books of the moment - and also now a very successful Amazon Prime TV series. The novels feature four twelve-year-old newspaper delivery girls from 1988 who uncover the most important story ever. It's a tale where suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide with nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood. In short, Papergirls is wonderful, and I challenge any 12-year-old tween not to love it!
TIPS FOR BUYING GIFTS FOR 12-YEAR-OLD GIRLS
1. PRICE
Always work to a budget for gift-buying and try not to be swayed by hints for expensive gifts. Tweens can be fickle, so if you buy a big-ticket item, make sure it isn’t just a trend that will be forgotten about within weeks.
I always set a maximum gift budget for buying gifts for my daughter’s friends or the kids of family friends. 12 is around the age that girls like to start choosing gifts for their friends, so giving them a clear budget is a great way to help them stay on track and understand budgeting their money.
2. RESEARCH
Take time to research big-ticket items before you buy them. You want to ensure you go for the most reliable, best-quality product. It is always worth doing a google search or asking friends and family for recommendations.
3. BRANDS ARE IMPORTANT
Like it or not, brands start to matter when kids are around 12. There is no point in buying a brand your child won’t wear or be seen with, even to save money.
However, this doesn’t mean you must overspend to buy them their current heart’s desire. I suggest that if you can’t stretch to the brand they want, speak to them about it and buy a completely different item instead.
Or let them know that if they really want something, they will have to save until they can afford to buy it themselves.
4. SEASONAL USE
Remember the season you are buying the gift in, especially for clothing or footwear. For example, there is no point in buying a really great summer outfit just as autumn is coming.
There is also no point in buying outdoor sporting equipment just as the sports season is about to change unless you have a child who has already proven their passion for the sport.
5. ON A TIGHT BUDGET
Much as we’d love to shower our kids with mountains of gifts or at least a lovely pile of gifts, it is important to remember that love doesn’t come gift-wrapped.
It is much more important to be realistic about what you can afford to buy for your child and go for fewer gifts rather than lots of cheap gifts to make it look like you’ve purchased a lot.
Luci is the founder of Mums Make Lists. She has written about all aspects of organising family life for ten years. Her main areas of expertise are family finance and budgeting, simplifying housekeeping and family admin and kids’ party planning. Read more.