Gift Ideas for Teens

Simple enough for a choir concert dress code yet bright enough to catch the stage lights, these clear crystal studs from Swarovski's Una Angelic line make a polished last touch.

They look just as right with jeans and a sweater the next day.

Crayola's Fine Line markers give a 14-year-old a thin-tipped set for inking tiny patterns.

Crayola lists them for ages 12 and up. She can shade a mandala page at her desk after homework.

The REVLON One-Step Volumizer dries and styles in one pass, with a choice of Cool, Low or High.

A 16-year-old with longer hair can get a full blowout at her own mirror before school.

Lunch-table snapshots come out of the Polaroid Now as prints to tape inside her locker before the bell, and the bundle includes film for her first sixteen shots.

Friend groups shift, and a photo on that door holds onto who shared the table.

This Fossil watch hands a teen shaping her own style a grown-up accessory to wear on her wrist every day.

She already chooses her own earrings and bags, so a watch joins the pieces she picks out each morning. On a babysitting night, she can glance down to see when the parents are due back.

A reader who likes spotting clues before the detective does gets a whole murder mystery series to work through over the holidays.

She can keep a notebook of suspects and theories as she goes, checking her guesses at each reveal. Once finished, she can pass the books to a friend and compare who spotted the culprit sooner.

Soundcore Q30 noise-canceling headphones fit a high school girl with a playlist for every part of her day.

She switches on noise canceling to tune out the chatter around her and follow every lyric. On the bus home, she can pull them on and replay an album she found that morning.

Clear cubic zirconia stones catch the light on this silver PANDORA logo necklace, which is simple enough for an ordinary school day, worn on its own or layered with thinner chains.

It reverses, too, giving her two looks from one necklace.

The Anker Zolo gives a 14-year-old who lives on his phone a backup charge for away games.

It rides in his gym bag, so he can plug in on the bus ride home.

Any teen whose friends crowd his couch for Switch 2 games can pass a spare Joy-Con 2 pair to whoever waits a turn; they don't fit the original Switch.

He chooses which multiplayer titles his crew plays now, so more hands on the controls means nobody sits out. The extra controllers wait beside his console for the next friend through the door.

Give a teen who trades photos with friends a Polaroid Now, and his favorite moments turn into prints he can pin up.

He chooses which shots are worth keeping, and once the color film in the box runs out, he'll need refills.

Which glowing dot is a planet?

With the Celestron Travel Scope, he gets to answer that himself instead of looking it up online. It packs into its own backpack for a camping weekend, and the Moon makes an easy target on the first clear night.

This FOLDOLOGY pad is a tougher follow-up for a teen who has already finished the earlier folding puzzles.

Each sheet uses the same fold-it-smaller idea, only harder. He can hand a spare copy to a friend and race.

College visits are coming up for plenty of juniors, and a slim Samsonite backpack carries the day's essentials from one campus tour to the next.

Its trim shape stays close behind him through crowded halls, with a charger and notebook inside, and it keeps looking right long after the tours are done.

A teenager with a weekend job outdoors gets a Carhartt cuffed beanie that looks right with his work gear.

The same workwear name shows up on the older guys he works beside, so the hat matches the job. Between tasks, he folds the cuff up or pulls it down over his ears.