11 Gift Ideas for your 11 year old Daughter (or niece, sister, granddaughter, Godchild, etc)

Hey there!  In honor of my daughter's 11th birthday (and because I have spent so much free time browsing gift ideas in this particular category for the last few weeks), I'm giving you a list of fantastic gift ideas for an 11 year old!  Obviously these are going to be great for anyone around that age as well... some of them my 8 year old also loves, and some of them my 15 year old would probably still enjoy, so use this list for ideas for anyone in this "tween" stage I suppose?

All of the items have links to help you find them for purchase! A small commission may be paid to me if you choose to purchase from some of them.

1.) Hoverboard

My daughters got these for Christmas actually, and LOVE THEM SO MUCH.  I love them so much.  I have been zipping around the kitchen on it while they are at school- sure makes sweeping the floor more fun!  I love when I can think of a big gift idea for my kids- so much easier than a bunch of small things.  This would be a great "big gift" for any kid- boy or girl- and such a span of ages would enjoy it!

2.) Roller Skates

Another item that has been used in my kitchen constantly for the last few days.  My daughter received these from her grandparents and hasn't barely had a waking moment without them on.  Of course, they will be more fun in the Spring when she can bust them outside, but for now she's enjoying her laps around the kitchen island for practice.

3.) Cute colored basketball

This pink and purple basketball is super cute!  We got this one for her birthday as well, and there are a lot of fun colors and designs online (Amazon...).

4.) Fluffy Backrest Pillow

This is so perfect for my kids!  They sit up in bed every night to read, and usually weekend mornings to draw or color or just chitchat with each other.  This pillow is going to make it so much more comfortable!  Bonus, it's super cute and fluffy, and that scores major point with my 11 year old for sure.

5.) Rush Hour Game

This game is super fun! My daughter actually has it in her classroom at school and asked for it at home.  It can be played alone, or as a group effort.  Our family loves it, and my husband and I have found ourselves playing it after the kids are off to bed!  Honestly, my 60-something year old father said he wants one to play in the evenings after seeing it at our house! Fun for all ages I guess.

6.) Tenzi

My daughter has actually had this game for about a year, but totally loves it.  It has been a big hit for birthday party gifts for her friends as well.  It's basically just a pack of colorful dice, with a variety of ways to use them for fun little games.  It's easy enough for her younger siblings to play with her, and fun enough for my husband and I to not mind when she asks us to play the 1000th game of the week!

7.) How To Draw Cute Stuff book

My daughter loooooves drawing.  So much so, that one of her main Christmas requests this past year was a 3 ring binder to keep her artwork in, as well as page protectors and other things of that sort.  After laughing with my husband that most of her list requires a shopping trip to Office Max- we went out and found her a cute binder and page protectors- but included a fun drawing book with it!  We got How to Draw Cute Animals, and then followed up with How to Draw Cute Stuff for her birthday after it was a big hit.

8.) Slippers

My other kids bought a pair of Llama slippers for my 11 year old's birthday gift this year, since "Llama" was her theme of choice.  (See the photo of the Llama cake we made her in this post.)  I also considered a cute pair of  moccasin style slippers for her, prior to my other kids finding these Llama ones, but I think the moccasins are super cute and stylish, and feel like the level of "maturity" that my 11 year old wants when she doesn't prefer big pink llamas on her feet! (They are so back and forth at this age, right?!)

9.)  Book Series

My daughter received The Sisters Grimm book series for her birthday, but there are so many good ones out there for this age!  It's fun to get a few as a gift to get a good start on the series if you don't want to do the entire thing.  I've done the first 3 in many different book series for my kids before just to give them a few to get into.

10.) Kindle (Reader, not tablet)

We actually gave one of these to two of our daughters for Christmas this year.  They have been super fun so far, and such a big hit with my girls.  We bought a few books for them on it as well, but have been enjoying some that come free on Kindle Unlimited as well.  It certainly hasn't taken the place of them reading regular books (see above suggestion for actual paperback books), but is a fun option for car rides, at a siblings sport to pass the time, and in bed, for example.  My daughters share a bedroom, so it's been super handy that one can read while the other falls asleep without needing a lamp on since they are backlit!  (I have a post of free books for kids on Kindle Unlimited that we have either read, or plan to look into reading!  Click here if you need it!)  We also gave a set of blue-tooth headphones along with it, so they can be used to audio books as well, and we opted to skip any case for now, based on the reviews on Amazon.

11.) Something to DO

I love giving the gift of an activity.  It's even better received as the kids get a little older.  We bounced around a lot of these ideas this year.  Some of our thoughts were movie theater, pottery shop, baking class, tickets to a show/concert together, ice skating, or online painting/doodling classes.  I think depending on the amount, it might be fun to do a little compilation of a few so they are set with fun activities to do for a while!  This feels especially helpful for a January birthday in Minnesota- like my daughter has.  The winter gets long and the cabin fever gets real- it's nice to get out and do something!  On a smaller scale- if you're looking for a gift for a friend/birthday party- we love to do a DQ giftcard as a gift with a small doo-dad along with it.  Helps us keep around our $10-$15 budget that we usually do for birthday party gifts, and it's something different than another art kit!

What are your favorite gift ideas for this age range? Help us all out and leave some ideas in the comments!

If you still need gift ideas, check out these posts: