Tween gifts: Most kids 9-12 are ready to move beyond toys
When The Times recently asked 11- and 12-year-olds for their gift wishes, the answers were surprisingly sophisticated — and expensive.
Video-game consoles such as Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation2 (or games for them) topped the list, but other suggestions included laptops, flat-screen TVs, MP3 players, Nike shoes with $100 price tags and motor dirt bikes.
Parents and the toy industry are stuck fighting what is dubbed "age compression," or the KGOY factor (Kids Getting Older Younger).
As many kids give up traditional playthings like dolls and toy cars around age 9, they're still just dabbling in teen items such as music and clothes. That means parents and relatives have to get creative and really search for the ideal gift.
"When I try to buy birthday gifts for other kids this age, I'm completely stumped," said Stephanie Bower, mom of 10-year-old son Nicholas Franko.
Nicholas "has a closet full of toys, but he doesn't really play with them very much," said the Queen Anne resident. "But he's not into girls or music yet."
Ditto for girls: "The last time I saw them playing with a toy, it was a tabletop air hockey game," said Mary Wikel-Chauncey, mom of 11-year-old Irene and 9-year-old Anna Chauncey.
Both girls own American Girl dolls, but "they haven't played with them forever," she said. The family celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, but "I realize I can't just go to the toy store anymore," she said.
One survey found nearly half of 7- and 8-year-olds cited playing with toys as their favorite pastime. That figure dropped by half in the next age group: Less than a quarter of 9- to 10-year-olds and a tiny 5 percent of 11- and 12-year-olds favored playing with toys, according to the Kotler Marketing Group.
Many tweens have a been-there, done-that attitude toward younger playthings such as Barbie, Star Wars and Spider Man. Experts also blame competition from TV and video games, lack of unstructured time and cultural pressure to mimic older teens.
Boys want electronics
An online survey of more than 1,000 children ages 6 to 14 by KidzEyes, a specialty research service of Chicago-based C&R Research, found that more than half of boys ages 6 to 11 wanted electronics (but only a fifth of girls). Within electronics, more than half of kids said the best gifts are video-game systems or computers and software, while a third voted for cell phones and CD or DVD players.
Perhaps reflecting the difficulty of shopping for the awkward not-quite-kid, not-quite-teen age group, consumers spend about $13 billion on children age 6 and under and $11 billion on teens age 13 and up — but only $8 billion on kids age 7 to 12, according to Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group, a New York-based market research firm.
Last year, popular tween toys were Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards for boys (the collector tin ranked as the 10th-best-selling toy in 2002) and Bratz Assortment, a collection of hip fashion dolls, for girls (the No. 1 doll and third best-selling toy), according to the NPD Group. This season, the KidzEyes survey found girls ages 9 to 11 cited the $99.99 Bratz Formal Funk Super Stylin' Runway Disco as a popular wishlist item.
Collections, hobbies
Both Yu-Gi-Oh and Bratz fit tweens because they're collectibles as opposed to simply toys, said Shannon Eis, spokesperson for the Toy Industry Association, a trade group.
The Bratz dolls, for example, release a new line reflecting the year's hot fashions, she said. Mattel (which owns Barbie) countered this year with a new, "edgy" doll line called Flava (pronounced FLAY-vuh).
By this age, most tweens have hobbies or play sports or instruments, which give relatives some direction. "You have to understand their interests and lifestyle and give a gift that wraps around that," Cohen said. "Otherwise, they're never going to use it."
It's important to stay current, however, as interests from last year might be dropped in favor of new ones.
"Guessing what's cool with this age group is virtually impossible," Eis said, noting that Nickelodeon's cartoon character SpongeBob is oddly hot with tweens this year. "They're so particular."
While experts recommend asking tweens what they want — instead of assuming a given gift is a safe bet, as it might have been when they were younger — some parents discover even their kids can't come up with any ideas.
On a recent visit to Top Ten Toys, Nicholas had a hard time finding anything he wanted, while his 7-year-old brother Peter picked out something immediately.
"In the past, he would have known absolutely," Bower said. "As the firstborn, he has definite likes and dislikes. It surprised me that he really didn't know what he wanted for his birthday or Christmas, for that matter."
Nicholas ended up with a hama bead kit that lets him make designs on peg boards with the plastic beads. The shapes are then ironed until they melt together. His favorite gift from a recent birthday was a Swiss Army knife because it combined his love of gadgets and the outdoors.
Bower, who so far has resisted her boys' pleas for GameBoys, leans toward gifts that encourage "experiences," such as a certificate for an hour at GameWorks, golf lessons or time at a rock-climbing gym.
Clothes rank second in the tween market (after toys), but many kids don't want adults picking outfits for them. "The days of clothes shopping for them is over," said Wikel-Chauncey. "They need to be there to help choose."
She falls back on craft kits, art supplies, books and sports equipment. The girls are also due for Cranium, the older version of the Cadoo family game they've outgrown.
Wikel-Chauncey still remembers her own bittersweet transition from childhood playthings.
"When I was 12, I remember it was sad to wake up on Christmas morning to perfume and money and sweaters instead of all these toys and dolls," she said.
"At this age, kids still want the big pile of wrapped gifts, but on the other hand, they don't want to play with toys."
Stephanie Dunnewind: sdunnewind@seattletimes.com.