where do you shop for your preteen girls? - Page 2

[Irishmommy]

Where do you get a kid that gets opinionated about clothes AFTER they turn 10? My almost 11 year old has been opinionated about them since she started walking.

[whatsnextmom]

You might try Forever 21 and H&M. I hate the way the stores are laid out but the girls don't seem to care. The latest styles are actually much less figure forming and more blousy in our area. I know both these shops have lots of these sorts of tops and they are all the rage with the high school set. It's sort of nice because you can find much less revealing stuff than you could when my DD was in middle school (and everything was skin tight.)

Kohls is another good place to go. When DD was in middle school and "labels" were important (and they were only important for like 2 years) we'd grab up a few of the big names on sale and supplement with Kohls items. They were good for DD's size too as she was pretty small until end of 8th grade and their teen section seemed to offer better sizing option.

[onlyzombiecat]

Originally Posted by Irishmommy 

Where do you get a kid that gets opinionated about clothes AFTER they turn 10? My almost 11 year old has been opinionated about them since she started walking.

For me it isn't that dd didn't have any opinion at all until recently about what she wore daily. She has always had preferences.  It is more that she just accepted what I bought for her- either our tastes matched up more or she just didn't care enough to get loud about it. So opinionated means to me that she has said to me that she absolutely will not wear x type of clothing and wants y type clothing.

She has always been homeschooled so maybe she has had less peer influence on her clothing choices.

[Ragana]

My DD is 11 and is changing her style as well. I definitely can't pick out her clothes anymore! She mostly gets her stuff at a thrift shop, Threadless (or similar t-shirts in the thrift shop or Target), Target women's section for some things like tank tops, socks and now sometimes shoes, and Target boys' section for pants, t-shirts, shirts, etc. She is not too girly, so I about fell over today when she wanted to try on some heels for fun (not wearing those yet!)

So, I second the idea of looking up various websites and maybe running outfits past your daughter at home before you hit the stores. You could save them on Delicious & print them out to take with you when you go shopping - the styles may be available at various stores.

PS Cool about the highlights. My DD also wants pink hair.

[Shantimama]

We order jeans from Lands End because they have some great sales and discounts. My girls like to do most of their shopping at thrift stores. They get a clothing allowance and they quickly learned that their money goes much farther there than at the mall! They can usually find lots of things from trendy stores there and they like that the clothes are already broken in and soft.

I loved buying their clothes when they were little but choosing their own 'look' is an important part of growing up. Sometimes they chose things I knew they wouldn't be happy with but it was important for them to find that out for themselves instead of not being 'allowed' to buy something by me. When I told my daughter that I always bought her soft cotton clothes because her eczema didn't flare up with those she started choosing those for herself. She made a few purchases that made her itch even though they looked great but it was good for her to arrive at that on her own.

[ChristaN]

My girls will be 13 and 11 in Sept.  My oldest found in middle school that the "acceptable" clothing that wouldn't get you teased was pretty limited.  Justice was one of those stores that was okay but not super popular.  I'd say that Target, JC Penney, and Old Navy fell into that category as well.  Dd12 has some t-shirts from Target and a pair or two of their jeans (from the teen section).  The Target kids (7-14) section was too young looking for middle school and would wind up getting you teased.  Lands End, while higher quality, was apparently very uncool.  The one girl who wore their polo shirts and other clothes was called some pretty unpleasant things by the other kids and bullied pretty badly.

Her's was my first middle school experience from the end of being the mom not the kid, so I don't know how it will look next year for dd10 who will be starting 6th grade which is middle school here.  She's going to a different school than her sister did.  Dd12 does wear a lot of Aeropostale and American Eagle clothing, but I understand not wanting that for your dd.  Dd10 is tiny and still fits into size 8 slims so we've had a harder time with her.  We have found that Gap Kids jeans look a lot like the "cool" jeans from the teen stores as long as no one knows where they came from.  I've also ordered dd10 some clothing online from 77 kids and P.S. (the kid stores run by the same companies as Aeropostale and American Eagle).  They, too, have things that are stylish and don't cause her to look like she's wearing Gymboree but they're a bit younger than Aero and AE.  I did find her a pair of jeans shorts (the short kind as well ) at Kohl's.  They're not obscenely short, though.