9 Gifts Your Nine-Year-Old Girl Will Appreciate

Nine years old is a simple age to be. Girls at this age flourish when the feeling of competence rewards them. They love the rush of finishing tasks, learning new skills, and being praised for doing things correctly.

Nine-year-olds are more aware of themselves as individuals slowly developing their own identity, and it’s essential that they feel confident that they’re able to do the good, right, and responsible thing by themselves.

Nurturing this fledgling confidence should be what guides you in giving your nine-year-old girl the gifts she’ll appreciate!

Gift-Giving Tips for Your Nine-Year-Old Girl

To set you on the right track, here are some tips for choosing gifts nine-year-old girls need!

1. Practical

Nine years old is just around the corner from double digits, which means they’re about to outgrow the age of toys. Wean them off such gifts by giving them presents that have more purpose than just being fun and looking cool – practical presents are kind of gift they’re going to learn to anticipate real soon!

2. Gender-neutral

Sure, this is a list for girls, it’s got Wonder Woman and mermaids featured in it. But you’ll notice at the core of the selections these are also things boys will enjoy!

It’s time to stop pigeonholing presents into girl-or-boy, dolls-or-action-figures, pink-or-blue categories. If your nine-year-old is the kind of girly girl who loves pink clothing, crafts, and lip balm, then, by all means, let her know it’s great to be that way. But if she’s not, she’s also welcome in the world of sports, math, and science!

The most important thing is to pay attention to your nine-year old’s interests and personality, so you can give them the gifts they will appreciate as a unique individual.

3. Social

Developmental tasks for nine-year-olds revolve around forming platonic friendships with their peers and doing tasks correctly.

At this time, it’s appropriate to give them gifts that strengthen social skills and fuel productivity, like board games, science experiments, and DIY activities. Such presents encourage sharing and healthy competition, while also being stimulating and rewarding.

4. Creative

At this age, it’s important to encourage kids to keep interacting with the world around them. Give gifts that will allow them to express themselves, create new things, and never let them lose their sense of wonder.

Try DIY projects, art materials, clothes they can match or mismatch, science kits, and Lego playsets. Allow your nine-year-old to ask “What will happen if I do this?” and – most importantly – allow them to discover to the answer by themselves.

5. Immersive

School-age kids are torn between still wanting to play pretend and wanting to be like the grown-ups. As such, nine-year-old girls will appreciate sophisticated, complicated toys with details and features that resemble their adult counterparts.

Go a step further than the simple playsets of yore and get her realistic toys for an immersive play that prepares her, even in the most basic of ways, for the real world.

Your Guide to Gifts for Nine-Year-Old Girls

We’ve made a diverse list of nine gifts for your nine-year-old that are practical, neutral, social, creative, and immersive – yet still age-appropriate and filled with whimsy and fun.  Check them out below!

For making her magical dreams come true

Ariel Blankets Kids Mermaid Tail Blanket

Available from Ariel Blankets for $36.85

 

Let’s dive into the list with this kids’ mermaid tail blanket from Ariel Blankets!

This super soft acrylic yarn blanket fits like a sleeping bag knitted with love and care. It starts flat and open like a regular blanket at the top, then gradually wraps around the legs, ending in the fantastical fishtail of her mythical Disney princess daydreams!

Adding special meaning to this gift, every purchase of a mermaid tail blanket from Ariel Blankets ensures a donation to Oceana’s “Save the Ocean, Feed the World” program, which promotes wild fishing management to protect ocean life biodiversity and sustainable seafood.

Give your nine-year-old girl this mermaid blanket to wrap her precious dreams and fantasies in! After all, being a mermaid is a dream no one will ever truly outgrow.

Features:

• Material: High-quality acrylic yarn
• Dimensions: 24×57 inches (up to the tip of tail); circumference around the knees are about 28 inches when unstretched and capable of stretching to more than half its original circumference
• Care instructions: Wash before first use. Machine wash on low, tumble dry. Do not wash with items that could snag on the knit.

Pros

• The blanket is super soft, incredibly stretchy and resilient!

Cons

• Made only of a lightweight knit, not for the very cold weather.

For girls who love to get down and dirty (and parents who love clean rooms)

The Dirty Dunk (The Original Over-the-Door Basketball Hoop Laundry Hamper)

Available on Amazon for $24.99

The Dirty Dunk prides itself on being the original over-the-door basketball hoop laundry hamper! It’s made of durable wood and metal, quick to assemble, and fits behind any door with its easy over-the-door design

Just hook up the padded metal brackets to your girl’s door, snap the drawstring shut, and get dunking!

Let your nine-year-old practice her shooting skills and keep her room clean by tossing her laundry into the Dirty Dunk (she shoots, she scores!).

When full, release the drawstring and catch all the dirty clothes in your regular hamper and cart them off for washing.

While your girl may never look forward to doing her laundry or tidying up her room, the Dirty Dunk at least makes the chores a little more enjoyable.

Features:

• Material: Heavy-duty wood with metal brackets
• Dimensions:4 x 17.4 x 24.3 in
• Weight: 15 pounds

Pros

• Easy to assemble and install
• Holds a more than a week’s worth of laundry

Cons

• Not for dunking! Backboard could easily come off from the weight of the dunking.
• Don’t forget to protect any walls that the board or ring might hit when the door is opened.

For the proud oddballs

Go Flamingo Six Odd Socks

Available on Wicked Uncle for $15.99

 

Socks tend to be disappointing gifts at this age. Nine-year-old girls want presents that spark excitement, that give them something fun to do, and that they can show off to their friends – and socks usually aren’t those things. But not these socks!

Far from being the uniform, the unassuming kind that you wear and forget about when you put your shoes on, these Go Flamingo Six Odd Socks are fun and whimsical, and you’ll want everybody you meet to notice them.

This set comes with six mid-calf socks in flamboyant flamingo prints that you can mix and match in no less than 15 different combinations – that’s a unique pair a day for two weeks!

Give these to your nine-year-old and show her that even practical grown-up gifts don’t necessarily have to be beige and boring.

Features

• Includes six odd socks
• Sock size: US 6 1/2 – 10 ½
• Box dimensions: 6.5 x 4 x 2 in
• Weight: 0.4 lb

Pros

• Made of sturdy, stretchy knit that your nine-year-old can grow into.

Cons

• The loud designs may be inappropriate for school.

For your budding confectioner

Make Your Own Chocolate, Chewing Gum, and Gummy Kit Bundle

Available on Amazon for $29.97

Have you got a sweet tooth, a science whiz, or both in the house? This 3-in-1 bundle of Make Your Own Chocolate, Make Your Own Chewing Gum, and Make Your Own Gummies Kits is the perfect gift to keep her occupied!

Everything you need is already included in each DIY candy-making kit. The directions are easy to follow, though adult supervision is still recommended for the steps that will need heat.

Much like baking cookies, there are lots of tasks to go around when cooking up candy, making these kits a hit for sleepovers and family nights.

Each kit contains information about the origins of the candy, how they were traditionally made, and how the main ingredient works to make the candy the way it is.

The Make Your Own Chocolate Kit even comes with two actual cacao beans that you can taste before you make chocolate! Give your nine-year-old a practical exercise in chemistry and cooking to sink her teeth into, with a sweet surprise center of a lesson on world culture and history.

Features

Make Your Own Chocolate Kit Includes:

• Organic Costa Rican cocoa butter
• Cocoa powder
• Confectioner’s sugar
• Starter crystals
• Stick-on temperature indicator
• Paper candy liners
• Cacao beans (for tasting!)
• Instructions and the history of chocolate

Makes 8 oz. of dark chocolate

Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit includes:

• Chicle gum base
• Confectioner’s sugar
• Corn syrup
• 2 flavor packets
• Plastic pan for softening the chicle gum base
• Instructions and the history of chicle.

Makes enough for 50 pieces.

Make Your Own Gummies Kit includes:

• Sour mix
• Colored and flavored Fair Trade sugar
• Powdered seaweed,
• Dried seaweed
• Molding starch
• Instructions and the history of carrageenan

Makes about 15 gummy candies

• Shipping Dimensions: 12.1 x 10.4 x 2.5 in
• Weight: 2.4 lbs

Pros

• Kits are both creative and educational – they give information about where the main ingredient comes from and how it works
• Easy-to-follow instructions
• Candy is delicious

Cons

• Requires adult supervision because the process will use heat
• Gummy kit does not have molds

For your Superhero in the making

Wonder Woman Dorm Lego Set

Available on Amazon for $39.99

Kudos to Lego for recognizing that girls love to build things too! Lego’s playsets geared towards little girls acknowledge that unlike boys, girls go beyond simply putting things together – they enjoy living in what they’ve built, savoring the little details, interacting with the environment, and telling stories!

Combine the mental workout of building with Lego with the imaginative play of pretending to be a grown-up girl living in a dorm, all wrapped up in the well-loved persona of Wonder Woman!

Your nine-year-old girl can tinker with Wonder Woman’s Invisible Motorbike at her workstation and then step into the wardrobe to change for school – and come back home just in time to stop her Golden Lasso from being stolen by the Kryptonite sneaking in through her window.

To add to the fun, you might want to check out the other DC Super Hero Girl sets featuring Supergirl, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and their friends Steve Trevor and The Flash. Have everybody hang out in the Lego Super Hero High School playset for a superhuman high school experience!

Features

• Wonder Woman mini-doll figure
• Dorm room with an opening window
• Bed with a secret drawer/screen
• Separate opening wardrobe
• Separate workstation with rotating platform
• Invisible Motorbike
• Orange Kryptonite
• Accessories: Wonder Woman’s Golden Lasso, a wrench, two spray paint cans, trophy, and wax polish for the bike.
• Box dimensions: 8.1 x 7.5 x 2.4 inches
• Weight: 10.4 ounces

Pros

• The pieces fit perfectly, especially Wonder Woman and the Invisible Motorbike

Cons

• May require adult assistance as there are a lot of parts to keep track of

For your voracious reader’s vast vocabulary

That Company Called If Electronic Dictionary Bookmark

Available on Amazon for $22.52

We know you appreciate the fact that your brilliant little girl is devouring every book she lays her hands on, but it can be a bit exasperating always to be faced with her ever-ready question: “What does this word mean?”

Enter this electronic dictionary bookmark from That Company Called If. This easy-to-use, award-winning electronic dictionary makes it exceedingly easy to look up unfamiliar words! Just type in the word and press OK to see the definition.

This handy dictionary bookmark puts 42,500 definitions right at your nine-year-old’s fingertips – for you, that means no more fumbling to explain words like egregious, or indentured, or obnoxious.

Give the gift of knowledge to your nine-year-old and help her tremendously in coping with her vocabulary words in school, or just in understanding more of her ink-and-paper friends. Be prepared to tuck her into bed and find this dictionary bookmark safely folded into the pages of Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Matilda, Ella Enchanted, or any of her other fictional safe havens.

Features

• Material: Plastic
• Requires 1 button cell battery (included)
• Dimensions: 9 x 2.7 x 0.9
• Weight: 6 ounces

Pros

• Very convenient; the design is thin enough for the device to be used as a bookmark really

Cons

• For those who are already wide readers, the word selection may be limited

For a flexible family game night

Twister by Hasbro

Available on Amazon for $13.99

If you’re in the market for something to amuse children that don’t involve electronics, helps with physical coordination, promotes social interaction, and – most importantly – won’t make a lot of mess, get your nine-year-old a classic Twister set!

Twister is special in that it’s a game that doesn’t require a lot of set-ups, doesn’t have a thousand small parts, and doesn’t require hours to explain or play. You are literally good to go anywhere you can put the mat down.

Just give the spinner board a turn and respond to the simple instructions: “Right hand, yellow!” “Left foot, green!” In no time at all, Twister will have everybody in challenging knots, reaching for vacant circles and trying to stay up in impossible positions…until you all fall down in a heap of laughter!

The original Hasbro version of Twister is made of durable materials that can endure the hours of fun and chaos it’ll bring, making this game an all-around favorite that will last through childhood and beyond.

Features

• Twister playmat (vinyl, measures 64 x 44 in)
• Twister spinner board
• Game instructions
• For 2 to 4 player
• Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.3 x 1.8 in
• Weight: 10.6 ounces

Pros

• Durable, heavy-duty playmat stands up to rough handling

Cons

• May require padding under the playmat to keep it from sliding around

For getting her off her phone

QNIGLO Two-Way Long-Range Walkie-Talkies for Kids

Available on Amazon for $27.99

Get your girl to unplug but still stay connected with these two-way walkie-talkies from QNIGLO. They offer a long range of up to three kilometers, and 22 channels for her and a friend to talk on.

The units have an LCD and a built-in flashlight and are small enough to fit perfectly in little nine-year-old hands. The walkie-talkies’ sound quality is crisp and clear, with an adjustable volume level and an earphone jack (if you need to be stealthy about using it!).

This QNIGLO walkie-talkie set is easy to operate and – unlike the overwhelming distractions presented by smartphones – allows them to stay focused on communication. It’s perfect for staying focused on cooperative games like Capture the Flag, scavenger hunts, or hide and seek.

Practically speaking, they’re also incredibly useful in the outdoors or during camping trips where cellphone reception isn’t always available.

(If your nine-year-old isn’t a fan of pink, this model also comes in black, red, white, camouflage blue, and camouflage green!)

Features

• Squelch: Auto squelch, CTCSS/DCS
• Scan: Auto scan 22 CH
•  Voice Transmit: PTT/ VOX function
• Radio Service: FRS/ GMRS
• Frequency Range: UHF 462-467MHz
• Requires 4 x AAA batteries for each (not included)
• Battery Usage Time: about 12 hours with an automatic power saving function
• Dimensions (of each walkie-talkie): 2.2 x 1.6 x 5.9 inches
• Weight: 2.4 ounces

Pros

• Good range and great reception both outdoors and indoors
• Plenty of channels available

Cons

• Requires lots of batteries

For girls excited to grow up (without knowing what that means)

MMP Living ATM Savings Bank

Available on Amazon for $49.99

Kids are always in a hurry to grow up – that is, before they realize being an adult is hard, and we’d all just want to go back to kids playing pretend. While we can’t stop them growing older, we can arm them for adulthood by gifting them toys that teach life skills, like the MMP Living Savings Bank!

Using this savings bank, your nine-year-old can make deposits and withdrawals of bills and coins. The machine can detect what coins you’re depositing, and sucks bills in like a real ATM!

It keeps track of your “balance” and features a savings target setting where you can check the calendar on display to see how much more time and money you need to meet your goals.

This savings bank comes with an ATM card that only works with the PIN code your nine-year-old will select for themselves (don’t worry, if they forget it, it’s easy to reset)! It even lights up and makes lifelike ATM sounds for a  realistic experience!

The MMP Living Savings Bank is the perfect aid for your nine-year-old girl to start learning about budgeting and banking. Now if only there were toys that taught us how to do our taxes…

Features

• Dimensions: 4 x 7.4 x 5.9 inches
• Weight (when empty): 1.32 pounds
• Requires 3 x AA batteries (not included)

Pros

• Amazing tool for teaching children about money and ATM banking

Cons

• A gentle reminder that this ATM savings bank is still a toy for children! It definitely won’t give you the same level of security as an actual safe.
• If you deposit coins when the machine is turned off, the value won’t show up on your account balance.
• If you withdraw or deposit bills, you have to enter the amount you want to take out or put in. If this doesn’t match what you took out or put in, the machine won’t be able to tell the difference, and your account balance will be inaccurate.

She’ll thank you later!

Your nine-year-old girl will appreciate gifts that are useful, don’t stereotype, will be a winner with friends, cultivate their talents, and allow them to have a taste of what it’s like to be all grown-up!

This gift guide for nine-year-old girls will help you choose wonderful presents that will amuse her youthful mind for oodles of time while building up her confidence and helping her bloom into the competent and vivacious young lady she’s set to be.