Important News From FashionPlaytes
The new year is bringing many BIG changes to FPgirl.com, the biggest one being our decision to shift away from selling clothes.
We know what you might be thinking, “Wait, what?! Isn’t FPgirl all about having girls design clothes that they can then buy?”
And the answer is yes: that’s definitely what we’ve been about, or, at least, what we thought we were about until we took a look at the numbers. Guess what we discovered? FPgirls love, LOVE designing clothes. That is absolutely a fact. But buying those designs is just not a priority for them.
Another fact? The FPgirl community rocks. We mean REALLY rocks. The community is filled with 1.5 million vibrant, creative, and opinionated tweens who love sharing their ideas about everything under the sun. We thought, “Why not put our focus completely on making this community even more vibrant and awesome in 2014?”
And so we’re doing just that. Even though we know it’s sad to say goodbye to the FPgirl store, we’re excited about this next chapter for our girls and our company, and we hope you and your girls will join us on the journey.
OK. Now for some important housekeeping details. Here’s what you need to know:
- We still have our design studio, so for all those FPgirls who love to design—and boy, do they ever!—they can still design to their heart’s content.
- We’re selling our remaining inventory. We expect to be sold out within the next 6 to 8 weeks, or around the end of March. So if there’s something your girl is dying to get, she still has a chance…but she better hurry since stuff is going fast.
- Gift cards—we’re no longer selling them. If you currently have one, we encourage you to use it soon to design and buy on our site. Please contact us right away if you have any questions or need help making your selection.
- FPgirls can still do all the fun things they love, like hang out in the Style Mag community and comment on posts, take part in polls and quizzes, enter design challenges, and more. The “more” part is going to be growing big time in the next 12 months since we’re putting all our focus on making FPgirl.com the #1 destination for tweens (it kind of already is, but we want to make it even better and reach even more girls).
- We’re still committed to each and every girl’s safety first and foremost. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t. We’re still a COPPA-compliant site and take it seriously.
We want to thank you for your continued support of FPgirl. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask. (You can also check out our recently updated FAQs here.)
Rainbow Loom tutorials are everywhere right now! It’s the cutest thing! I love picking up my children from school and seeing all the kids with their rainbow loom bracelets on. They’re literally up and down the arms of the kids - and hanging from their backpacks! Rainbow Loom bracelets are very popular right now, there’s no doubt about it!
Since the SUPER BOWL is just one week away, I thought it would be fun to share some Rainbow Loom videos for some Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks fans! My son Alexander is obsessed with making Rainbow Loom videos, so I thought I’d share 2 of his! Have some fun with your tween and make some gorgeous and fun bracelets with the Super Bowl in mind!!
For the Broncos fans…
For the Seahawks fans…
Have some fun!!!!
Trends in Books: What’s Your Tween Reading?
The FPgirl members do love to read! When we polled them a month ago to ask what they were reading their answers were as diverse as they are, but a few books stood out in the nearly 350 responses.
The top selections may not surprise you, but to this mom of two boys and one daughter, I delighted in the fact that this group of FPgirls enjoys action-packed novels with strong heroes and heroines and plots that have them on the edge of their seats.
Here are some of their favorites:
The Hunger Games trilogy seemed to be on the top of the list with Harry Potter books not far behind. Some girls mentioned their parents said they were still too young to read The Hunger Games but they couldn’t wait until they were old enough to do so.
Not far behind, the Divergent series, Percy Jackson books, The City of Ember series, A Series of Unfortunate Events series, Dork Diary books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, The Mother-Daughter Book Club series are all favorites as well. It appears to me that our FPgirls are growing up with strong self-esteems and empowering minds as they are really choosing books without fluff and meaningless girl banter. Not that there’s anything wrong with fun girly books, but when it comes to reading, it’s good to have some meat in their stories!
Which brings me to a couple that I’d like to highlight:
Glitter Girl by Toni Runkle and Stephen Webb: This is a fun read with a powerful message of what can happen when the lure of popularity and fame gets in the way of best friends. Perfect for girls who love a little bit of glamour and fashion, Glitter Girl sparkles while it also shows tweens how your best friend doesn’t have to be exactly like you.
“Hi! I’m Kat. Welcome to my blog. I may be from a small town but I’m also Glitter Girl Cosmetics’ newest trendsetter. Thanks to my flair for fashion and my popular style blog, I’ve been chosen to be an Alpha Girl, which means I get to try out all the Glitter Girl products before they hit the stores.
Forty-eight hours after she blogs about the goodies in the new line, every girl at Kat’s school is sporting the gear. Kat’s popularity skyrockets, but Jules—Kat’s BFF—seems to be the only one who’s not buying into the Glitter Girl lifestyle. Is Kat willing to sacrifice her friendship for life in the fab lane?”
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper: I picked this one up for myself a few months ago, mostly because I was so attracted to the cover. And actually, a few of our FPgirls have read it and loved it as well. Every tween should read this book. It will bring new light into their eyes and a compassion they never knew they had toward the disabled.
“Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow. In this breakthrough story, readers will come to know a brilliant mind and a brave spirit who will change forever how they look at anyone with a disability.”
And finally, for more reading ideas for your tween girls, here are a few more suggestions on what the FPgirls have been reading lately:
- Double Fudge
- Wonder
- Dragon Slippers, Dragon Flight, Dragon Spear
- Keeper of the Lost Cities
- The Phantom Isles
- Pegasus: Olympus at War
- So B. It
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Beautiful Creatures
- Love, Aubrey
- Son of Neptune
- Gone
- Hobbit
- Looking for Alaska
- The Fault in Our Stars
- John Green books
- Thirteen Reasons Why
- Flora & Ulysses
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- The Babysitters Club
- Anything by Andrew Clements
- The Maze Runner
- Canterwood Crest series
- Chicken Soup for the Pre-teen Soul
- Undercover Girl series
- One Direction books
- Jerry Spinelli books
- The Outsiders
- Pride and Prejudice
- Tarzan of the Apes
- The Great Gatsby
- Nancy Drew
- Little Women
- Inkheart trilogy
- Narnia
- Allie Finkles Rules for Girls
- The House of Hades
Take a look at the whole discussion at Whatchya Reading! over at FPgirl’s Style Mag! And also share with us what your daughter is reading!
About the Author:
Stephanie Elliot, in no particular order, is a wife, writer, blogger, book reviewer, editor and mother to three kids, two who have already been tweens, and one who is right smack in the middle of his tween-ness. Her oldest son is almost driving and her daughter survived her tween years so Stephanie must be doing something right. Find out more at http://stephanieelliot.com
Sunday Inspiration for our Tweens
I want to teach my sons and my daughter to always try to shoot for the stars. They will all have dreams and goals and aspirations, and I want them ALL to go after them.
I loved this quote because it’s so true… they will never know if they never try.
Words to always live by, at any age.
Happy Sunday!
Fashion Friday: Textured and Bold Leggings
I love dishing about fashion trends for tweens with my mom friends!
Yesterday at school pick-up, I was talking about the “it” fashion trends when I was a tween with some of my girlfriends. Off the top of my head, I remembered these trends being very popular:
- Leggings with stirrups
- Scrunchies
- Rugby shirts from Benetton
- KED sneakers (thank you to the movie Dirty Dancing for that trend!)
- Neon belts
- Jeans that were pegged at the bottom
Things have really changed, huh? Can you tell I was a child of the 80s?
Recently I’ve been seeing TONS of leggings everywhere, but not just plain, black leggings - I’m talking - textured leggings and bold patterned leggings. I think it’s a super cute trend and I also love that it’s appropriate for tweens. My 13 year old niece was rocking a pair of patterned leggings last weekend with cute little brown boots and an over-sized denim shirt with a scarf. I thought she looked adorable!
If you’re looking for some cute and appropriate trends for your tweens, check out the leggings that are in the stores now! They are just adorable!
(And you’ll look like a cool mom being “in the know!”)
#Throwback Thursday: Banana Clip Beauty Trend
It’s Throwback Thursday!
Let’s have some fun with a beauty trend from the 1980s!
Remember the BANANA CLIP?
Oh, yes… this plastic hair accessory was all the rage in the 80s! if you had “big” and “layered” hair, your hair looked even cooler pulled back in the Banana Clip. It was just an easy and fun way to put your hair back without doing a ponytail.
I haven’t seen a Banana Clip in YEARS!!
What beauty trend do you think your girls will be talking about 20+ years from now?
Wordless Wednesday: SNOW DAY #WordlessWednesday
We’ve got snow today.
My daughter?
Yeah… she’s not too happy to hear that the snow is back. She seems to prefer the warmer weather.
What about YOU? What do you prefer - sunny skies or snow white hills?
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