4 Tips to Encourage Tweens to Find Their Own Sense of Fashion
Regardless of the joy they get from your styling choices, a moment arrives when it’s essential to allow your child to cultivate their own unique fashion sense. Typically, this phase falls between the ages of 8 and 12. During these years, they’re in the phase where they’re not quite children anymore but not yet teenagers. They experience numerous physical transformations and crave a degree of autonomy. Is there a more fitting time to assist them in discovering their personal style?
When parenting a tween, there’s often a struggle between ensuring that they’re dressed appropriately yet stylishly. It makes all the difference if you can convince your child that while you do not want them dressed inappropriately, you do not mind them looking stylish.
Here are a few tips to help you raise an independent and fashionable tween.
Let them Dress Themselves
You have probably picked out your child’s outfits for years and now you’re having a hard time letting them do it themselves. But dressing themselves is the quickest way for kids to learn the fashion dos and “don’ts”. You could offer some guidance at first then let go as they get older.
You should also let your tween shop for their clothes, preferably from retailers who carry styles designed for tweens. Some designers, such as haydengirls.com, are committed to retailing fun cloth styles that inspire confidence in tween girls. You can also look for similar sites for your tween boys. The aim is to let your tweens pick out clothes for themselves in stores where you’re sure that their selections would be stylish and suited for their age.
It’s never too early to instill in your child the habit of choosing quality over quantity. Teach them that when it comes to clothes, you pretty much always get what you pay for. They should learn at this stage that good quality clothes last years and don’t go out of style while badly made clothes fade out in no time.
Let Them Have Their Own Clothes
The teenage years are the perfect time for experimentation with fashion. During these years, they get to make fashion mistakes and learn from them. However, many tweens are denied this opportunity because they wear nothing but hand-me-downs.
Hand-me-downs save parents a lot of money, so many times younger siblings are made to wear clothes that have already been worn by their older siblings even when those siblings are nothing alike. Letting each child have their individual tastes and express their unique personality through their dressing is a great tip for keeping your family healthy. This way your tweens are not just growing physically but their minds are trained to think for themselves and their level of self-confidence is considerably improved.
Teach Them to Accessorize
While its okay to let your tweens pick out the clothing basics for themselves, you still have a lot of teaching to go when it comes to accessorizing. You can subscribe to some online fashion magazines that’ll help show your child the latest fashion trends with accessories. They need to know how to pair their shoes, purses, and jewelry with their clothes choices. Teach them that while good quality clothes are long lasting, accessories could easily go out of style and should constantly be swapped to show the latest fashion trends. Places to get ideas for what’s trending in kids fashion include; popular tween tv shows and popular tween fashion magazines. Teach your tween that while they do not always have to chase the latest fads, it doesn’t hurt to sometimes embrace current fashions.
Allow Them Explore and Reconsider Trends
Your tween can never develop their own sense of style if they’re obsessed with looking like everyone else. While it’s great to look fashionable, it doesn’t hurt to be creative while at it. The only way to do this is to never be afraid to be different. Its one thing to learn the current fashion trends but its even better to not be obsessed with celeb approved trends. It is okay for your tween to sometimes dislike fashion trends that are celeb approved. Let them have a signature look rather than hopping towards whatever is in, in every season. Once your tween has learnt the basic fashion dos and don’ts, allow them to explore and find their preferences.
A great way to teach your kids to not be obsessed with current trends, is to say no sometimes. If you have a tween that wants you to purchase every single fashion trend as soon as it hits the market, learn to say no to these requests from time to time. Teach them to always put their personal likes over what their favorite celebrities like or what their classmates are wearing. Set a good example with your own wardrobe and teach your tween that it’s okay to sometimes admire a trend from afar without making it a part of your own wardrobe.
