How much clothing should a 13 year old girl own?

1 set per day. No more, no less.

It depends on how often you do your laundry.

At least one of each.

Enough to keep you warm, and not so many that it takes unduly from your family’s budget. In some families, that could be one or two outfits. Just jeans and shirts and underwear. Nothing else. In other families, you could have several closet’s full of clothes. Like if you were Mitt Romney’s daughter.

There is no “should” to this. It is an issue of your circumstances: needs and wealth and competing uses for money in the family.

Does the girl wear a uniform at school? If so, she can get by with less regular clothes.

If she wears regular clothes to school, she should probably have at least 10 different pairs of pants and tops, but they should be in colors/styles/fabrics that can mix and match easily, creating way more “outfits.” I’m assuming that she wears more pants than skirts, but if she wears more skirts than pants, then choose more skirts and less pants.

I never wore shorts to school, but if this young lady does, then add in about 4 pairs of shorts. Again, things should be easily able to mix and match with the tops.

What kind of climate does she live in? If it gets cold in the winter, then she’ll need a few sweaters, which I was already counting in with the tops. Maybe 4 or 5 different colored sweaters, but again, make sure they mix and match with the pants and skirts.

As far as shoes go, again, it kind of depends upon what type of climate she lives in and what kinds of activities she’s doing. When I was in school, I mostly wore tennis shoes or a pair of casual leather shoes, but I also had a pair of nicer shoes that I would wear to special events and I had a pair of flat sandals (but some schools don’t allow open toed shoes or sandals at school) She might need a pair of specialty althletic shoes depending upon what types of sports activities she’s involved in, including regular P.E. classes (the school might have a preference).

It’s better to have more bras and underwear than you need, than to have less than you need. They’ll last longer if you have more of them. So have at least 2 weeks worth and maybe even 3 weeks worth. Also, because she’s 13, she might have some little period accidents that need to be accounted for, so make sure there’s plenty of extra undies.

Belts, depending upon the colors of her clothes, she should probably have at least one black and one brown belt, but maybe a white one too, depending upon colors of the rest of the clothes.

Accessories completely depend upon the style of clothing and her taste and her budget. Maybe about 5 different sets of earrings, I’m thinking a good pair of gold or silver studs, a pair of inexpensive rhinestone studs (either clear like diamonds or one in the color of her birthstone) and 2 pairs of very short danglies and maybe a set of small hoops. Maybe a few hair bands in black, white and pink (or another color that she especially likes) Note: I get mine from the 99 Cent Only store, 3 to a pack like These Stretchy Ones and the plastic ones like These Depending upon her hair style, she might also like some hair clips like These or These and some Hair Scrunchies Maybe a bottle or 2 of some flattering nail polish. I didn’t wear makeup at aged 13, so can’t really advise on that subject. Maybe a pair of black leggings to wear with skirts. And some white and/or black tights if she likes to wear those with dresses and skirts.

If budget is a concern, consider shopping at thrift stores, but go with a plan in mind. Decide ahead of time how many items you need and what type, make sure they are in the fabric/color scheme that you need to mix and match. Make sure your young lady is wearing something like stretchy bicycle shorts and a tank top so that she can try on the clothes over her own clothes, because often there is no dressing room. But you can find bargains and great looking stuff at thrift stores.

The amount of clothing she needs will certainly depend upon the laundry schedule of her parents and the clothing that she gets should be of a good quality fabric that won’t disintegrate after several washings. These clothes should be able to last for an entire year.

She should own as many as she (or her parents) can afford to purchase and have room enough to store.

Well; that depends on how many she needs.

Wait one hopping farting minute, what do a 13 year old girl need with a bra? What has she got to hold up? Unless mom and pop paid for her to get some plastic that is an expense one can skip (as well as 60% of all women IMO).

^^^There really is one born every minute.

Girls are entering puberty as early as 8½ these days, FWIW.

I wore a bra when I was twelve and wore the same size when I was 21.

Do you have daughters?

Um, 13 year olds do wear bras.

As much as is needed, and if the parents’ budget can’t cover it, then charities and the like should be considered. If I have to get technical, I’d say seven of each, so at least it lasts the whole week. More than that couldn’t hurt though.
Mind you, belts/shoes can be excluded from this and limited to one or two, (probably two or three for shoes, 13 year old kids ruin those pretty good) and pants, shorts and skirts/dresses can be in their own category. (although personally having pairs of pants as priority might be a little more practical) Sweaters can also be limited to two or three, but you need at least seven different every day tops.
Accessories should be optional, and I wouldn’t put that in the same category as clothing. Same for formal wear or useless fashion.
However, clothes fitting the proper climates should be considered as well. For example if there’s Winter wherever that 13 year old girl is, I’d also add in the appropriate clothes.
Unless shorts mean underwear, I didn’t see that choice in there, which should be mandatory, and have enough for a whole week. This is based on the assumption that the parents do the laundry weekly. After a year or so goes by, prepare to purchase a whole new wardrobe. And a trip to Burger King bro.

Seriously @Hypocrisy_Central Most 13 year old girls wear bras. Even if they are not largely endowed, part of the reason to wear a bra is so that their stuff is not visible to everyone else. Also so that their stuff doesn’t rub against their clothing and cause discomfort and so they can comfortably engage in sports without causing pain/injury.

Really? Are you living under a rock? Or do you simply not understand what it is/might be like for a 13 year old female?

I agree with @wundayatta there is no concrete should.

I also agree with being shocked anyone is surprised 13 year old girls wear bras.

How long is a piece of string…
pretty obscure question at least 100 answers would be correct.

Enough to suffice.
My daughter’s 13 & has been wearing a bra well over a year & if she ever finds out I just wrote this, i’m dead meat!!

I distinctly remember being teased to the point of harrassment because I was the only girl in my 8th grade class that didn’t wear a bra yet. I believe the most common name was “Ironing Board”.

That said, I wouldn’t go crazy with a 13 year old’s wardrobe. She’s just going to want something completely different in 6 months, anyway. And that’s provided she doesn’t hit a growth spurt and outgrow everything in three or four.

When this question popped up it reminded me that when I was a manager in the children’s department at Bloomingdale’s what we all used to say was the kids are more on trend than adults. Being on trend means new clothes quite often. I lived in an upper middle class area though, so people had the money to buy clothes for their kids.

Just some basics so she has enough confidence to avoid follow the trends. Her job is to do well in school not show off to the other boys and girls.

@LuckyGuy Well, I think fitting in can help a girl not feel awful. Girls are much more social than boys, we already know women on average speak many many more words than men, they seem to need it. Girls also worry a lot more about being pretty and attractive than boys. Letting girls do minimal things to fit in like hair and clothes to a reasonable extent frees them to not think about such things in my opinion, and focus on their work. Everything in moderation of course.

@JLeslie Yep. Everything in moderation. But a 13 year old should not be worried about the latest fashion trend the media foists upon her. Why must every pair of jeans be skin tight and low rise? If girls started out at a nearly age not caring about that they might have chance of fitting in because of their personality rather than the cut of their jeans.
I am such a prude I think girls should not even try to be attractive to boys at that age. Believe me the boys will be attracted even without the makeup, or nail polish or tight jeans. They are full of raging hormones. All the girl has to do is talk to them. Skin tight jeans (current style) are just a distraction in the classroom.
Yep, prude indeed. But it has to start somewhere.

It’s so funny to compare myself to kids today. When I was 13, the fashion for boys was jeans as WIDE AS YOU COULD GET THEM. Seriously, the circumference of one leg of the fashionable jeans was greater than my height half the time. For girls, it was shorts AS SHORT AS YOU COULD GET THEM. I much preferred dressing like the boys.

What the hell is the fascination with skinny jeans? I mean, how uncomfortable can you get? When I was 13 I still climbed trees on a regular basis. Can’t do that in skinny jeans.

@LuckyGuy My 6 year old niece wearing short shorts and fancy sandals did not understand anything about attracting boys, she just liked Brittany Spears and wanted to dress like her friends. I agree, little girls are too oversexualized in my opinion, but at very young ages they, some of them, care about fashion, have bits of peer pressure, aside from anything to do with boys.

A very close friend of mine, her daughter who attended private Catholic school, felt on the outside because the cool girls had some sort of fancy designer backpack. I don’t think parents should go along with all of it, and I am very much in favor of school uniforms, although my example proves even with uniforms there can be trouble, I also think some parents are ridiculous about not letting their kids straighten their hair if they hate their very curly locks, or get a mole removed they hate, and some trendy clothes don’t hurt, etc.

Here, the school uniform often includes the backpack with school logo.

I would be at a loss today if I had a teen aged daughter. I absolutely hate the painted on looks of jeans today and crazy boys are wearing them too. Why are we such slaves to fashion and why can’t propriety be part of the how to dress proposition???

When I was a kid we had uniforms and I had some jeans for after school until I went to boarding school, then skirts had to be worn after school as well. No jeans, pants or shorts until we were locked down at night!

I guess I would give her the current Eddie Bauer catalogue and a budget and see what ensues!