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The right clothes for your tween

No longer a little girl, not yet a woman. So what can she wear?!

By
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Originally published in Today's Parent September 2011

Clothes are the trigger for all too many arguments between parents and preteens, and shopping trips often involve tears and meltdowns. Kids want to look cool and fit in with their friends, while parents may be uncomfortable with the revealing clothes they pick out — not to mention the high cost of high fashion.

Inbetween sizes

There are also practical challenges: The changing bodies of preteens are often difficult to fit.

For example, Chantalle Joyce’s 11-year-old daughter, Sienna, at five-foot-three, is tall for her age (not surprising, perhaps, since her dad is six-foot-ten). That means that she’s outgrown most children’s sizes, but because she hasn’t hit puberty yet, women’s clothing doesn’t really fit her properly.

When she asks to wear tops that expose her belly button, Joyce says no. “The clothes for preteen girls are getting sexier and skimpier,” says Joyce. “People already think Sienna is older than she is. She can easily be mistaken for 15 or 16.”

Avoiding brands

Looking sexy isn’t the issue with preteen boys, but Karen Smith, mom of two boys, still isn’t happy with the options. “I find the way most children’s clothing is branded — with big, obvious logos — to be really off-putting. I don’t want my children to be billboards. I should be able to get ad-free clothes.” Smith also has trouble with fit: Her nine-year-old son is very slender and because he hates shopping, Smith spends a lot of time hunting for clothes that fit him properly.

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