Lately we’ve been posting birthday ideas for younger children. This post is going to focus on celebrating teens and their interests as they develop a new level of social awareness. As teens, young men and women begin to really notice the world around them, especially in the realm of gender, race and sexuality. Physical appearance becomes a vehicle for self esteem. They begin to create a new identity for themselves through clothing, makeup, and accessories of their choice. Expression and beauty is in full throttle. Inspiration is found in magazines, on TV, and through social media. So, let’s create a game that involves just that… the inspiration of beauty.

We had a lot of fun experimenting with this idea. Here is what you will need to get started…

• A pile of magazines – these can easily be found for free at your nearest public library or at garage sales!
• Glue or tape
• Scissors
• Paper – construction paper might work best since it’s more sturdy

First you will want to cut out as many faces as you can find. Make sure they are as large as possible and are all about the same size. This will help when putting different parts of faces together. We found that this game is most fun when you mix genders too – it’s a great learning tool!  Once you have the faces, cut out parts of the face like the eyes, the nose and mouth, just the forehead, etc. We used two eyes from one face and a mouth from another face in our picture above.  Throw all the parts into the middle of the table and encourage everyone to build a face of beauty. Glue or tape the final products onto a piece of paper and have all the teens showcase their creations.

Looking at someone or something in a different way can be really powerful and clearly awesome! Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and this game demonstrates just that. It’s creative, FREE, artsy, edgy, and expressive – perfect for any teenage party.