While I was at the jewelry store yesterday, a woman came in looking for a gift for her 13 year-old niece. A necklace. There were 2 women working in their store. Mid to late 20s. She had 3 items picked out. One necklace we vetoed immediately as too mature.
The second had a simple pendant with a metal portion with a stone hanging down. The second one also had a pendant, with a simple bird etched into it. The woman started talking about her niece, how she was a tomboy and still in the jeans and sneakers phase.
Then I thought about the necklace I got from my great aunt when I was 13 or 14. Anyway it was a b-day gift, prefaced with, now that you are a young christian woman, you need a cross to wear! And the one she got me was gold, with diamond accents, and very ornate. At that age I wore sneakers with my skirts. I avoided florals in almost all cases. And I wore lots of preppy basics: plaid skirts, t-shirts, jeans, jean skirts, mary janes. Stuff like that. Back then, for me, the cool jewelry was the BFF necklace, peace sign earrings. Or the key earrings like Janet JAckson had. So basically, that necklace was just way too "girly" for me. I tried to wear it a few times, and it never felt right. It is in my jewelry box as a momento, but never leaves on me. In retrospect, I probably would have worn a much simpler cross with less decoration as a daily item, but this was way too much.
So as the woman was telling us about her niece, we all chimed in, get the bird, it is perfect! I wanted to save this poor 13 year-old for getting a piece of jewelry that didn't work and spending the next 20 years thinking that jewelry isn't for her.
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