Best Birthday / Christmas Gifts for Teen Girls

As a mother of a very vocal tween girl, I know what the tweens want most this holiday season.

Musical themed gifts: If their favorite musician is any member of the popular boy band, One Direction, a sure to please gift is a replica of the 1D singer. 12” dolls are available for each band member: Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson,Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik. Choose a collectible that simply looks pretty or one that “sings”.

Is there anyone hotter than Taylor Swift right now? If Swifty is their favorite, purchase gently pre-owned Taylor Swift concert tee shirts online here. Finally, one can’t go wrong with iTunes gift cards.

Musical tooth brushes make tooth brushing fun! Tooth tunes musical tooth brushes are available in a variety of tunes including: Bruno Mars, Black Eyed Peas, One Direction and Hannah Montana.

Clothing: Teens love fashion and that includes anything Aeropostale, Hollister, Victoria's Secret PINK or Abercrombie! Do not pay retail store prices for this designer clothing. Shop online for gently used junior, tween and young woman apparel. Don’t forget the accessories! Coach and Vera Bradley purses, backpacks and lunch boxes are fashion necessities for young teens.

Build a Bear Workshop plush: My daughter still loves her BABW stuffed plush animals. Purchase gently used, often retired and hard-to-find stuffed toys online.

Arts & Crafts: Sew Cool sewing machine, Tapeffiti and anything design related. My teenage daughter spent hours wrecking a book, Wreck This Journal. It is an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them).

Limited Edition Chapstick: Flavored Chapstick makes a great stocking stuffer! Your choice of flavors available here: Gingerbread Kiss, Cake Batter, Candy Cane, Fruit Punch, Pomegranate Gumdrop, Citrus Jelly Bean, Pumpkin Pie.

Designer Footwear: Ugg Boots, Coach fashion sneakers, Brighton and Toms. Don't pay retail price! Save money on gently pre-owned designer footwear for teenage girls and young women.

Cold hard cash: In gift card or any currency!

Become a Facebook Fan of Piece Of Scrap to keep an eye on what my teen daughter vocalizes next!

Block and restrict an iPhone app: Snapchat

As a parent, there are many apps available for an iPhone that drive me crazy. One in particular: Snapchat. This smartphone app allows users to snap a photo or a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend. They'll view it, laugh, and then the Snap disappears (or does it?). Granted, the person sending the photo snap can set a time limit so it will expire in as little as a one second, but still – the photo has been shared.

As one can only imagine, there is no filter on what thing, body part or other is snapped and sent to friends. It is not so much that I don’t trust my children to “keep it classy”, but I have a hard time trusting their friends … especially teenage boys that are friends of my daughter.

To learn more about social media and teens, It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens is a great read / buy!

Sure, you can delete the app and tell your child not to use it again. But, can you really be sure it’s not reinstalled and then deleted when not in use? To prevent the app (and others like it) from being installed, you can use a combination of iPhone Restrictions / Parental Controls. To do so, try the following:

1. Delete the Snapchat app (or any app you do not want the child to use)
2. Go to Settings / General / Restrictions / Enable Restrictions

a. You will need to create a 4 digit passcode
b. If you forget the 4 digit passcode, the only way to reset it is to Reset the entire phone

3. Under Allow, turn off Installing Apps (this is remove the App Store icon from the phone)
4. As an extra precaution, you can also turn off In-App purchases
5. Scroll down on the Restrictions screen to “Allow Changes”. On Accounts, check the option for “Don’t Allow Changes”.
6. To block Snapchat from a router or DNS, add the domain appspot.com to the list of blocked domains. The specific domain is feelinsonice.appspot.com

While adding these Restrictions to block Snapchat does not fully prevent teen sexting, it sure makes sexting a little more difficult. Through phone records and iMessage, a parent can track who their child is sending text messages to and in some cases, even see the content being sent.

To further educate teens about internet safety including cyber-bullying, Cyber Dilemmas In a Jar: Challenges for Teens, is a great conversation starter card game with many thought provoking scenarios facing teenagers today.

Parents guide to snapchat

Best gifts for teen girls from a mom who parents one

As a mother of a very vocal tween girl, I know what the young teenage ladies desire most for a gift. Whether one is seeking the gift for a birthday, 8th grade graduation, Christmas, Easter basket, Valentine's Day, etc…be sure to please them with any one of these teen favorites!

Fashion accessories: Don’t forget the accessories! Coach bags and everything Vera Bradley are fashion necessities for young teens. Young drivers will like a Vera Bradley breakaway lanyard and matching ID Zip Card case to store student ID card and driver’s license.

North Face jackets: Even in the dead of winter, most teen girls (and even boys) choose to wear a jacket instead of a winter coat. The North Face Osito soft and fuzzy zip front jacket is most popular with teen girls. High school students where these in a variety of colors to and from school.

Clothing: Teens love fashion and that includes anything Aeropostale, Hollister, Victoria's Secret PINK or Abercrombie! Do not pay retail store prices for this designer clothing. Shop online for gently used junior, tween and young woman apparel. Sign up for Amazon Prime to receive free 2-day shipping on any size order!

Wreck this Journal: My teenage daughter spent hours wrecking a book, Wreck This Journal. It is an illustrated book that features a subversive collection of prompts, asking readers to muster up their best mistake and mess-making abilities to fill the pages of the book (and destroy them).

Limited Edition Chapstick: Flavored Chapstick makes a great stocking stuffer! Your choice of flavors available here: Gingerbread Kiss, Cake Batter, Candy Cane, Fruit Punch, Pomegranate Gumdrop, Citrus Jelly Bean, Pumpkin Pie.

Designer Footwear: Ugg Boots, Coach fashion sneakers, Brighton and Toms. Don't pay retail price! Save money on gently pre-owned designer footwear for teenage girls and young women.

Cold hard cash: In gift card or any currency!

Bath and Body: Bath & Body Works spray, lotion, soap were a huge a hit at the cheer party Christmas gift exchange.Teenage girls like to smell good!

Starbucks: Young coffee lovers enjoy Starbucks! Last year, my daughter received over $50 in Starbucks gift cards and spent every dollar.

For more gift-giving ideas, visit my Pinterest board, "Best Christmas gifts for teen girls."