ISO 15 yo Girl Birthday Party ideas.

May 11, 2012 6:18 PM

What was the best teen (+- 15) girl birthday party you had/remember? We live in Los Angeles.

I have looked at this post which has some good ideas, but not what my daughter wants. I'm trying to keep it to about 8 friends, hopefully in the $200 range. We're considering a bonfire on the beach (Dockweiler) at this point, but I'd love to get some other ideas that were successful for you.

posted by johngumbo to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 answers total)

The best birthday party I had was my 16th. We lived in a town with a really large lake and my parents had a boat at the marina. There was a really nice condo-type hotel at one end of the lake and my mom booked one for my party. It had two bedrooms (one with one bed and one with two) and a family room with a pull-out couch. There was also an indoor pool. I was allowed to invite as many friends as I wanted to the pool/lake/dinner/cake portion of the evening but only four friends could spend the night (as well as me and my mom).

Back then you could drive a boat on the lake if you were 16 so my normally really overprotective mother allowed us to go out on the lake alone (!!!!!). We swam in the pool, cruised on the lake, ate tons of junk food, and didn't actually sleep at all.

It was fantastic.
posted by cooker girl at 6:30 PM on May 11, 2012

When my (twin) friends turned 14, we spent an entire day at their house on the lake. There was a huge amount of food, boys and girls, music and minimal parent involvement. We had paddle boats and went swimming in the middle of the lake. (As a parent now, I shudder at the thought, since I was not a strong swimmer.) But it was pure freedom. The weather was fantastic. We had a great time.

Around the same age, my friends and I got a real kick out of a build your own sundae party. This wasn't the only thing we did at the party. But, honestly, as teen girls, it was just awesome to let lose and have our choice of ice cream flavours, a zillion toppings, whipped cream, cherries and the like. Girls spend so much time being judged about what they eat that it really was a memorable event. And it was in a home, so it wasn't like we were at a restaurant where the story would get back to the rest of the school. I know it's sort of a simple thing, but we really had a good time.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 8:00 PM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

It was my 15th, actually. My boyfriend was visiting from military school in his dress blues, my best gay friend wore a boa and gay me a lap dance. More dancing to Alanis Morrissette, and ice cream cake.

Parents left us the hell alone. That's key!
posted by two lights above the sea at 8:11 PM on May 11, 2012

I think my favorite parties from that age were the ones that involved doing something a little adult: one friend had a sixteenth birthday that was a dinner party at a nice restaurant on a private patio where we all dressed up and drank toasts with our (virgin) cocktails and had a fancy cake from a French bakery. Or once as a surprise party my mom rented my friends and I (all girls) a room at a nice beach hotel with a big pool (spec. the Loews in Santa Monica) and we stayed up late on our own (no parents anywhere) watching pay-per-view movies and ordering room service.
posted by unsub at 8:21 PM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

If you can, find someone in the city that will drive your daughter and her friends around in a limo for a reasonable price. My sister did this for her birthday when she was about 15 years old. We just drove around the city, but you could have the limo driver drop them off to a restaurant in the area or to the beach at about 7pm or later which is when it's beautiful outside. Have picnic baskets prepared with delicious food and a working music device and you're good to go!
posted by livinglearning at 9:16 PM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think that I might have been a little younger than 15, but my favourite birthday party as an older kid was similar to unsub's: dinner at a restaurant without parents that my parents paid for. They dropped us off and picked us up.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:12 AM on May 12, 2012

My 17th. Camping by a beach. We went swimming during the day and stayed up talking all night.
posted by Laura_J at 12:31 PM on May 12, 2012

For my 16th birthday, my mom took me and about five or six of my friends on an overnight trip to a cabin on a lake. We spent the weekend BBQing, swimming, boating, staying up late, talking, gossiping, and watching bad movies. It was AMAZING.

The things that made it special were:
- I kept the guest list limited to my closest friends
- There was no weird friend drama that often crops up in situations like that, I think because I kept the guest list pretty small
- Boys were allowed! I was shocked my parents agreed to this, and somewhat even more shocked THEIR parents agreed, but it was so nice to have our parents trust us to not do anything inappropriate. (Full disclosure: Makeouts did happen, but I'm now married to the guy I made out with... so there's that.)
- We didn't feel like we were being babysat. My mom sort of left us to do our own thing (within reason, and without leaving the cabin). Some stupid decisions were made (some friends decided to try to swim across the lake using only a fun-noodle as a flotation device) but that's half the fun, really.

Upon preview, it looks like birthday parties on a lake are the way to go!
posted by meggan at 12:56 AM on May 16, 2012