Girls go online

April 11, 2007 1:10 PM

Top websites for girls 9-14? Help me help my girlie tween find something fun online.

Does anyone know where I can find a listing of top sites (for girls) for the ages of 9-14? I have a female 11 year old 'tween (who's very girlie) interested in something 'fun' to do online. Not really interested in 'direct buy' stuff like the webkinz's stuffed animal, more of maybe a community space for girls the age, games, etc. Is there a service that lists these kind of popular specialty interests sites?

posted by eatdonuts to computers & internet (19 comments total)

Orisinal. Not a list but a site that'll keep her busy for a long time.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:38 PM on April 11, 2007

You could look at club penguin.
posted by demiurge at 1:40 PM on April 11, 2007

I'd also look at Piczo if you want a social networking site aimed towards younger people (with an emphasis on safety).
posted by Laura in Canada at 1:55 PM on April 11, 2007

If she's the curious type, you could point her towards Wikipedia. She can browse random topics galore.
posted by radioamy at 2:03 PM on April 11, 2007

Teagames is lots of fun too.
posted by jenkinsEar at 2:11 PM on April 11, 2007

Have you ever heard of Zoey's Room?

It's not super girlie but she might find it's fun anyway. It's a really neat concept.

(Full disclosure, it's run by a Maine nonprofit which I have done some work with in the past.)
posted by miss tea at 2:24 PM on April 11, 2007

There are a lot of libraries that collect what they think are quality teen sites that they create portals of. Usually these link to things of specific interest to teens as well as adult sites that have things that would interest kid and not a lot of adultish content that isn't appropriate for kids. A few that I know of

- Multnomah County teen sites
- King County Library Teen Zone
- Hennepin County Library TeenLinks

Here are a few lists of links of things girls might like, a wide variety to choose from

- Girl Websites - Empowering Young Women
- Websites for Girls
- Internet Public Library Teen Space

None of these are so guaranteed that I'd give a young kid a URL and say "go check it out" but they're designed to be easy to use, pretty intuitive and high interest with out being chpck full of stuff to buy and annoying ads, etc. Happy surfing.
posted by jessamyn at 2:57 PM on April 11, 2007

Discovery Kids is way cool. Especially the games. Don't miss Whizzball!
posted by OpinioNate at 3:06 PM on April 11, 2007

Sissyfight.
posted by srrh at 3:29 PM on April 11, 2007

Cute Overload.
posted by annaramma at 3:46 PM on April 11, 2007

My little sis loves Gaia, though I had to help her pronounce it.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:36 PM on April 11, 2007

Not directly a site for your daughter, but a blog about marketing online to "Gen Y" or "Gen Next" or whatever they're called now:

http://www.ypulse.com/

Lots of links in the sidebar might be worth exploring.
posted by lubujackson at 4:37 PM on April 11, 2007

If she is into role playing games at all Runescape is huge with the almost a teenager demographic.
posted by COD at 4:53 PM on April 11, 2007

My little sister loves NeoPets.
posted by snickerdoodle at 4:57 PM on April 11, 2007

My almost-13 loves Homestarrunner, Cute Overload, Snopes, Millsbury, Pixelbee and a million paper-doll sites.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:18 PM on April 11, 2007

My cousin is building a online horse game. It's in beta now but it might be worth checking out. horse isle
posted by rdurbin at 7:01 PM on April 11, 2007

these are a great start guys. thank you. i'm really hoping to engage her in something akin to metafilter, while being appropriate to her age (that being said, with consideration to safety, we really don't limit her when we can help it), get her brain working while honing those computer skills - although she's already kicking my ass on soul caliber... even while having better nails than i do.

anyway, keep them coming if you think of them!
posted by eatdonuts at 8:40 PM on April 11, 2007

Flip?
posted by bingo at 10:18 PM on April 11, 2007

Just wanted to throw in another vote for gaiaonline.com. They are very conscious about safety for the kids and they are also parent friendly.
posted by GlowWyrm at 9:49 AM on April 12, 2007