Gifts for teens…they are one of the hardest groups to buy a gift for! If you are asking yourself, what should I get my teenager for Christmas? Or what should I get for my teen for his/her birthday? I’m here to help you with some of the best gifts for teen boys and teen girls.
What do teenagers like?
One common thing most teens LOVE is money! If you have a teen on your gift list, why not give them a gift basket that could eventually turn into a side hustle or job so they can earn their own cash? These are great gift ideas for a 17 year old boy who has everything, or gift ideas for a 15 year old boy, these gifts also are unique gift ideas for teen girls of any age! Here are 43 Unique Gifts for teens that will help them makemoney. These gifts are great for any budget because you can choose one or more of the items for each side hustle gift.
This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you anything)! Get more information in my full disclosure.
As you look through these different teen gift ideas, I’d also recommend adding one or both of the books from the entrepreneur gift basket to the other gift ideas. The other gift ideas for teens all need business savvy so grabbing Become a Teen Boss or 10 Steps to your First Small Business for Teens will give them a good business foundation that applies to any of the other side hustle gift ideas.
- Jump to Gifts for Teen Entrepreneur
- Jump to Gifts for YouTuber
- Jump to Cake Decorating Gift for Teens
- Jump to Coding Gift for Teens
- Jump to Face Painting Gift for Teens
- Jump to Balloon Animal Side Hustle for Teens
- Jump to Henna Painting Gift for Teens
1
Entrepreneur Gifts for teens that will help teens make money
This is a “basic” basket of gifts for teens that could lead to lots of different businesses…You could include:
Avery Printable Business Cards
Avery has a ton of free business card templates. Once your teen has decided on a business, it will be simple to design custom business cards.
Become a Teen Boss 20+ ways to make money using your electronic device
This looks like an amazing book to help teens discover different avenues of online moneymaking (blogging, youtube) while emphasizing how they can make a positive difference in the world with their work.
10 Steps to your First Small Business
This book has 10 actionable steps from concept to sales for teens to start a small business.
Got Ideas? How to turn your Ideas into Products People Want to Use
This is a manual that helps walk people through the ins and outs of taking an idea from concept to product (digital or otherwise). Although it isn’t specifically written to teens it has amazing visuals and emphasizes thinking about the end-user while creating a product/business.
Seed Money
Print a free “seed money” tag to put on an envelope and slip some money into it to help fund their business venture! You can grab your tag by signing up for The Gifty Girl newsletter and Free Printables Library below.
2
YouTube Creator Gift Ideas for teens
YouTube Video creation is a legitimate way to make money and something a teen can work on as a side hustle. It’s a little scary as a parent so I’d recommend grabbing this book so you can understand better what your child is getting into Help! My kid wants to become a Youtuber book for parents
Here are some great gifts for teens who want to become a YouTuber:
YouTube planning book for kids
This book gives great info to kids wanting to begin their YouTube endeavor. YouTube is more complicated as a creator than most people realize and this book breaks it down into things that kids and teens can understand.
This book delves into how to get a following on YouTube and how to monetize your YouTube channel.
This microphone will provide better sound for YouTube videos or podcasts and is very affordable.
Phone stand with microphone
If your YouTuber will be using their phone to record videos this stand also includes a microphone.
This is a great basic video camera that would be perfect for beginning YouTuber Creators.
This ring light includes a phone holder that will give better lighting for YouTube video creation
This backdrop is 5 foot by 7 foot and folds up so it could make a great (and sparkly!) backdrop for YouTubing or Vlogging.
This green screen backdrop makes it so you can change the background using an app. You could purchase a backdrop stand like this one or just use the included clamps to hook it up somewhere in your house.
3
Cake/cupcake decorating gifts for teens
Besides being super fun, learning to bake and decorate cakes and cupcakes could turn into a great side hustle for teens. Help them make flyers and business cards and they could get a fun side business going!
This kit contains TONS of products needed for decorating cakes including springform cake pans, decorating tips, rotating cake turntable, chocolate mold, cake leveler, and more!
This set is less expensive and may be less intimidating. It contains tips, frosting bags, a frosting knife and a case
I love the Wilton colors, they are the richest and very easy to use. This is a 12-pack of basic colors.
This book looks amazing! It has step-by-step photos and detailed explanations of everything cake making and decorating. This would be a great reference point for teens learning about cake decorating.
These would be super fun to decorate. It is a pan for jumbo-sized cupcakes
This book has 150 pages of cupcake recipes to increase your baker’s repertoire.
I love this adorable cupcake apron! It would be a fun addition to this cake/cupcake decorating gift for teens.
4
Coding Gifts for teens for Teen Side Hustle
Teens and their phones are inseparable and coding is a skill that is very valuable in today’s workplace. Giving a teen the tools to be able to code and create their own app…which could be monetized is an awesome gift idea for teens. They’ll be learning a new and valuable skill and having fun!
Code for Teens- This book goes step by step through exercises to learn Javascript.
This book addresses different careers for Coders but also has true stories of teens who are coding.
This book shares info and some inspiring stories about girls and women who code.
This is an amazing gift that contains things your teens need to build their own computer…(you will need to connect it to a screen). Not only will it help them learn how the computer works, but it also runs through programming so they will gain some basic coding skills. We bought a Raspberry Pi for our son when he was little and it was so cool to see him learn and build.
This book has 10 lessons that teach kids how to code using Scratch.
This notebook will give them a spot to write what they’ve learned and great app ideas!
5
Face painting gifts teens side hustle
Besides being a fun hobby (and helpful on Halloween), learning to face paint could be a very marketable skill for a teen. Carnivals, birthday parties, Halloween…here are some gifts that could turn into a great teen side hustle.
This is a basic set that contains face paints, glitter and some paint brushes.
This is a bunch of face painting crayons, which are sometimes easier to work with than face painting and brushes.
Face Painting: Over 30 faces to paint
This book looks awesome, it has flexible binding and has 30 different faces with step-by-step face painting tips.
Fun Face Painting Ideas for Kids
This book has 40 step-by-step face painting projects for kids, they range from simple to more complex and have lots of good ideas for face painting.
This book gets much more complex with 50 different tutorials of pretty fancy face painting!
This is a good tool to have when you are painting faces!
Another good item to have in a face painting kit to clean up mistakes.
This would be a great place to store face painting supplies and let your clients see how they look.
6
Balloon Animal Side Hustle Gift
Balloon animals are another simple side hustle that teens could do at a variety of venues from birthday parties to special events. The following gifts would be fun to give a teen to help them develop this unique skill.
This kit includes 100 balloons, a book, a pump and a dvd.
100 extra balloon animal balloons for practicing and tying.
This book has 32 different balloon animals and gives step-by-step instructions on how to do each.
Ultimate Balloon Animals Course
This DVD has over 50 different balloon animals in a “course” that teaches balloon animal tying.
These aprons come in a bunch of colors and have pockets to carry everything you need for making balloon animals.
7
Henna Painting as a side hustle gift for teens
Henna painting is growing in popularity and is a fun way for teens to express themselves artistically. They could also open a booth at a fair or do henna painting at birthday parties or even bridal showers!
This has great reviews. It is actually Jagua berry-based so the color is a bit different than henna. It is supposed to look more black-blue than traditional brown henna. This kit contains stencils as well.
This is one of the most popular brands of henna powder (not all are created equal!) You will need to purchase essential oils and applicator bottles as well.
This was an oil recommended as a good one to mix with henna.
These bottles have a fine tip to make application easy.
This has step-by-step instructions and examples of henna tattoos (they are beautiful!)
These stencils will make it easy when starting out henna painting until your teen feels more comfortable giving it their own artistic touch.
If your teen has asked you, How can I make money as a teenager without a job? Or How can teens make money? Here is your answer! Why not wrap up some items that your teen will enjoy and can also use to earn some spending money. I hope these gift ideas will spark some entrepreneurial spirit in your teen. Do you have any more great side hustle ideas I could add?
Happy Gifting!
Steph
Adree | The Keele Deal
Tuesday 5th of November 2019
These are all such great gift ideas. I love that it helps teens develop a skill and learn about business.
Penny
Monday 4th of November 2019
Yes! This is fun and empowering! Thanks!