The Five Best Birthday Gifts for a Very Girly Tween Daughter

Is your eight-to twelve-year-old tween girl a traditionally feminine "girly girl"? Does she have two drawers containing her hair accessory collection? Is she showing a strong interest in clothing - and if eleven or twelve years old, does she care about the outfits she wears because not only her girlfriends, but (yes already) B-O-Y-S happen to be around at school. Does she sketch fashions/sew, ask to plan a party (or start the plans without asking first!), and cook and bake treats for her girlfriends, perhaps reflecting her basic food groups of cupcakes, pizza, fruit, and salad. If so, she is definitely the girly-girl brand of tween. This year, for her birthday, here are the five best presents you can buy your daughter with some ideas fitting different budgets.

Since clothes or a gift card for buying clothes is the best present you can give a girly-girl daughter who is no longer a little girl but not a teenager either, it is important to know where to buy her clothes or a gift card for clothes that will knock her socks off. My friend Heather Hoover of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, has a tween daughter -- and she reports that gift cards to Target and to Old Navy are a huge favorite in her daughter's crowd of friends. I noticed looking at target.com the other night that the xhilaration brand of clothes featured some reasonably priced dresses to please any ultra-feminine tween for a birthday present. There were casual and party dresses with ruffles for $15.99 suitable for a tween or a teen, hitting just right note of grown-up without being "slutty" as tween girls will call the more revealing clothing. Another worthy clothing store from which your tween would love to have a gift card for clothes would be delia's (online at store.delias.com). The site is parent-acceptable without being childish -in fact, it has all kinds of tween girl pleasing info and blogs in addition to the merchandise, such as that for the Gossip Girls, The Jonas Brothers, and the Pretty Little Liar series of books. And the dresses are very feminine as well as being stylish. You may decide to treat her to a mall clothing specialty store outfit on her birthday - Aeristopole, Hollister, and even Abercrombie have clothes that she can wear as soon as she graduates from girls to junior sizes. (the extra smalls are pretty darn small.) Instead of holding the risqué catalog against Abercrombie, be reassured it is easy to prevent her receiving one -and the clothes can be reasonable when they go on sale. I was surprised, however, on a recent trip to Water Tower Mall in Chicago, how much more inappropriate the Forever 21 and Wet Seal stores are for tween girls. Many of the clothes look too adult (in more ways than one), not to mention that they will fall apart quickly. Even the Limited store is fine in order to purchase a special vintage inspired sweater or a black belt with a tasteful, 1940's inspired flower on it -if it is a birthday gift bought by you or with you accompanying her.

Hair accessories are hugely popular with girly-girly tweens on birthdays. If you know her taste, you can make a gift basket for her with a number of different accessories in it such as headbands and barrettes. Or spend less money and get her a gift card to use with her friends on a shopping trip. Target is my favorite for tween girl hair accessories; Claire's and Icing also seem like magical places for this age group being stores with nothing but preteen girl accessories such as jewelry, totes, flip flops, and hair gear.

For tween girly-girls who love to offer their friends treats at your house, cookbooks, cooking classes, and gift baskets made up by you will be very well received as the third best tween birthday gift for your girly-girl daughter. I especially like Cookbook for Girls: Festive Food for Fun Times by Denise Smart (2009) on a recent trip to Borders because it had the kind of food girls want to serve at slumber parties or make for holiday gifts. It brought back nice memories of the Seventeen magazine cookbook (no longer in print) that my parents once got me for my birthday, a cookbook I use to this day! For the eight or nine year old tween, I might also buy the Pink Princess Cookbook. Check with your local cooking school for an appropriate class for her birthday gift. Chicago's The Chopping Block has twenty and thirty dollar classes in everything from apple desserts to cupcakes. A gift basket of the Chopping Block's bright cake decorating large crystal sugars, decorative cupcake liners, and a cupcake pan just for her would cost about thirty five to forty dollars but would really hit the spot as a gift.

The fourth best birthday gift for your tween girly girl is to let her have a party. Start by buying her the party planning book at the American Girl Doll store, then find out her ideas. My first slumber party, at a slightly older thirteen, was very exciting to me. A luau is another idea. When I was eleven years old, my mom took me to two daytime summer luaus at friend's houses, attended by both mothers and daughters. A lifelong passion for luaus and tiki culture started as a result. Your girly daughter will love it because of the pretty foods, female bonding, and getting to wear flower leis and hair flowers. How can you get any more feminine than that?

Although there are many other great tween girl birthday ideas for your budding little Gwen Stefani such as craft kits from American Girl and the Percy Jackson Olympian book series, My fifth best gift choice would be taking her to tea, perhaps with her best friend, anywhere elegant that has afternoon tea where everyone can get all dolled up. In Chicago, my choice would be the tea at the Peninsula Hotel because for the forty dollars spent apiece, the tea food is varied and continually replenished. A tea party at home could be beautiful too - less expensive, and you can invite more of her friends (and perhaps yours.) And you then can all discuss whether you should have bought your tween daughter her first scrapbooking kit so that she could share that interest with you. In any case, any tween girl with strong girly tendencies should love the five best birthday gift ideas in this article.