‘Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs

One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.

The music here is loud, throbbing. But it can’t drown out the giggles of shoppers.

Yes, giggles.

Welcome to the abercrombie in Costa Mesa, a store for kids ages 7 to 14.

Known as ‘tweens in the marketing world, youngsters in this age group are spending like never before, $90 billion a year, by one estimate. And they are doing it with new freedom, as their busy, dual-income parents are more likely to indulge their whims. Girls in particular have grabbed retailers’ attention with their desire for trendier clothes.

Gone are the days when Mom lugged home dungarees and T-shirts for her 9-year-old daughter’s school year. Today’s ‘tweens make for picky, fickle shoppers with a keen awareness of what’s hot and a hankering to look more grown-up than they are. At the same time, their tender age makes them vulnerable to advertising.

It’s an ideal combination for manufacturers and retailers, who have helped fuel the buying craze with faux leather pants and flirty tops. A line of pedicure products beckons to this age group. Marketers even host slumber parties to find out how to make a ‘tween spend.

The trend raises the anxiety level of many parents and consumer advocates, who say that girls barely past Beanie Babies are being pushed too quickly toward mascara and navel rings.

The debate heated up recently with Abercrombie & Fitch’s sales of thong underwear to young girls at its abercrombie stores.

“I think it’s appalling, sexualizing these girls at 9 and 10,” said John Jones, a 59-year-old college instructor, who accompanied his wife and niece on a recent shopping trip for the girl’s 10th birthday. He stood by grumbling at the Girl Mania store in Newport Beach, watching as a group of girls awkwardly imitated a hip-gyrating dance routine and his niece had her hair twisted up and glittery makeup applied.

“This will come back to haunt the kids and their parents,” Jones said. “You can’t sexualize the kids and then take it away.”

Companies reach out to ‘tweens with bright colors, videos, flashing lights and pulsing music. Some stores have gum-ball machines and photo-sticker booths, others lighted vanity tables where girls can admire freshly applied makeup. Glitter is everywhere--on denim skirts, in lavender eye shadow.

In one of the many indicators that these are kids in transition, a dressing room at the Limited Too store in Costa Mesa outlines a three-step process for choosing the correct size bra.

In fact, children haven’t changed that much over the years, academics and market analysts say. But the world around them has.

More families have two working parents and more discretionary income. And with families under increasing stress, experts say, parents have a greater need to believe their children are competent and able to make their own decisions.

“There have never been so many influences on them, whether it’s MTV or the Internet or wealthier parents willing to spoil these kids,” said Brian Tunick, an analyst with J.P. Morgan Chase, an investment banking firm in New York. “With both parents working now, this is a way for them to show love to their kids. That’s what has changed.”

‘Tweens--so named for their status between early childhood and the teenage years--are not developed enough psychologically to know how to be skeptical about advertising, said Elizabeth Moore, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame.

“Children have televisions in their rooms, phones, computers,” Moore said. “From a marketer’s point of view, the range of products these children are consuming is expanding. And there’s a lot of evidence that they have a lot of influence over what their parents buy.”

The advertising directed at this age group encourages them to want to be like teenagers, with the emphasis on being cool. High-voltage and often skimpily clad entertainers such as Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez have become idols to many young girls.

At the same time, many parents now leave apparel decisions to their children.

“I don’t dare bring anything home anymore,” said Becky Yager of Huntington Beach, who shopped recently with her 10-year-old daughter. “I have to let her see it first.”

This early sophistication, particularly among girls, has given rise to an array of products, from electronics to wigs to bedroom furnishings.

“Companies recognize its huge market potential,” said Steven Richter, an analyst with Wellington Management, an investment banking firm in Boston.

A huge market, but not easy to capture. The pint-sized consumer is as easily bored as a full-blown teenager, and her attention span is even shorter.

“New, new, new. It’s all about newness,” said Dana Siegel, who handles marketing and product development for Hotsie Totsie, a ‘tween-driven division of Worldwide Cosmetics in Los Angeles. “One second they like it, the next second they don’t.”

Specialty retailers have the edge in capturing the ‘tweens’ attention and money, market experts say. Limited Too, with its trendy clothes, glittery makeup and extras such as in-store ear-piercing, dominates the apparel niche, but others are bent on taking a share. The Zutopia and Rave Girl chains, which also boast cool clothes in ‘tween sizes, are expanding.

“We want to get them in, convert them, then keep them in the fold as long as possible,” said Kathy Bronstein, chief executive of Wet Seal Inc., which owns Zutopia.

Girls can shop, get their hair styled and have birthday parties at small shops such as Girl Mania and Club Libby Lu in Chicago. Libby Lu customers are greeted with a sprinkling of “fairy dust” and allowed to mix their own shower gel, moisturizer and lip gloss.

Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has doubled floor space for preteen girls over the last year. Sears also offers trendier clothes for youngsters and has sponsored concert tours for preteen icons Christina Aguilera and Backstreet Boys.

Pedicure kits for the 4- to 12-year-old set have been flying off the shelf at Bath & Body Works in Costa Mesa. The kits, which cost $12.50, include a toe separator, nail file, pink and blue sparkly nail polish and “beach feet foot cream.”

The popularity of clothes can be tougher to predict.

“I wouldn’t wear pink or skirts ... never,” said Halle Bissin, 9, who on a recent shopping trip to Nordstrom and Limited Too at the South Coast Plaza shopping center wore a blue wig and tennis shoes with wheels in the heels that allowed her to glide from rack to rack. Her mother followed, loaded down with clothes and saying, “Mom is about out of money, honey.”

Keeping up with what’s “over” and what’s still hot is enough to make an adult break out with pimples, said Barbara Fields, owner of an L.A. trend forecasting service, who visits Europe every six months to track ‘tween and teen trends for her clients.

“You’re running ragged, almost being them, so to speak,” she said. “You have to be.”

But she has some advice: If U.S. retailers know what’s good for them, they’ll install manicure stations in stores--as many European businesses are doing--and designated spaces for girls to try on hats and wigs. They also should have “bead bars,” where girls can make their own jewelry; “customized denim departments,” where they can decorate jeans, and--of course--the latest in candy.

A Los Angeles company, Girls Intelligence Agency, owes its existence to this ‘tweens marketing craze. The firm holds slumber parties in homes and other locations across the nation, showering ‘tweens with products to see how they react, President Laura Groppe said. Groppe then advises clients whether to “launch an entire product line or abandon ship immediately,” she said.

Groppe recently held a slumber party in a gymnasium in Austin, Texas, so that 50 girls ages 7 to 12 could preview products set for launch by Tiger Electronics, a division of Hasbro Inc. The youngsters went wild over a “hit clip,” a tiny cassette player that hangs on a key chain and plays segments of a song.

“The girls came up with lots of great ideas as to the different shapes they should have to make it more of a fashion accessory,” she said.

On the flip side of the advertising coin is Girls Inc., a nonprofit in New York that teaches girls as young as 6 to be more skeptical of media messages.

Meeting in schools, homes and elsewhere, program coordinators talk with girls about the messages they’re getting from videos, television and magazine ads, said Kim Kearns, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter.

“Because they’re so bombarded with images of high-priced items, they really need to look at what’s the best way to use the money they have,” Kearns said.

Girls Inc. also prods girls to think about whether they need an array of products to be socially acceptable.

“I personally have heard my niece say, ‘Do I look sexy?’ ” said Lucy Santana, program director of Girls Inc. of Orange County. “I say, ‘You’re 5 years old. Where did you get that word?’ ”

This summer, the Orange County branch will offer a program called Body IMAGEination intended to, among other things, help girls ages 7 to 11 deal with peer pressure to dress more provocatively.

“A lot of girls just 10, some 10 1/2, are transferring to middle school,” Santana said. “There’s a lot of pressure to dress the way everybody else is dressing and look the way everybody else is looking, to fit in.”

Last month, Abercrombie & Fitch was bombarded with e-mail from people who were enraged by the company’s sales of thong underwear to preteens.

Some underwear had the words “wink wink” and “eye candy” printed on the front, said Don Wildmon, founder and executive director of the American Family Assn. Abercrombie assured the group’s members it would take the thongs off the shelves, he said.

“They’re exposing kids and telling them, ‘If you want to be popular, sex is the way to do it,’ ” Wildmon said. “They’re robbing the children of their childhood for a dollar.”

Abercrombie did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

More stores are bound to follow in the teenage retailer’s footsteps, because girls want what they see on television and what their older sisters wear, said Marshal Cohen, co-president of NPDFashionWorld, a unit of NPD Group, a market information firm in Port Washington, N.Y.

Abercrombie is “all about selling sex, even to the younger kid,” he said. “You’re going to see people trying to emulate the Abercrombie formula, absolutely.”

Retailers insist that their clothes and makeup are appropriately designed for young girls. In fact, much ‘tween apparel is cheery and childlike--T-shirts imprinted with the word “Angel,” gingham pants and cotton undies decorated with bumblebees.

And not all parents are fretting about the expanding clothing options.

When the topic of thong underwear came up between Pamela Campos and her 13-year-old daughter, Campos at first wondered whether it would “lead to something else.” But she decided that “the reason they’re wearing it is probably the same reason I would have--to not show a panty line.”

News researcher Lois Hooker contributed to this report.