Giving scheme - 16 year old girl, HELP!

[HildaHosmede]

We have a giving scheme at work...buy a gift/gifts for a child, unwrapped in a gift bag. Value about £20/£25.

I've done it every single year for a decade and have always been able to choose the child's age and sex...so I've always chosen 3-5yr boys who are ridiculously easy to buy for (I have 3 ds's).

This year they've randomly assigned instead and I have a 16 year old girl. Zero other info.

I have absolutely no idea what to buy for the best...how on earth do you guess at what they may like? Any help would be really appreciated 🙏

I have no idea either. I'd probably go with multiple small gifts, like a stocking and hope that she'll love at least a few items in there.

Also to add...they suggest no gift cards and nothing that's 'branded' if possible - basically nothing that parents can re-sell which is bloody awful to think about.

Tricky.

How about

Some Chocolate
nice shower gel / moisturiser
fleecy socks
fleece blanket
nice notebook / pen

Victoria Secret body spray, they sell it in Next

For a girl of that age I'd get , bobbles, face wipes, cleanser , shower gel , chocolates, books, pens , note books , fluffy socks , gloves , beanie hats , toothbrush, toothpaste, lip balm, perfume, body spray.cute socks .

@Muchtoomuchtodo suggestions are good. Other ideas
Hot chocolate sachets+mug
Lip balm or gloss
Gloves

Nail varnish
Nice shower gel
Lip balms
Chocolates
Fluffy bed socks

It is sad to be choosing presents trying to think what wouldn't be taken and sold. Hopefully the teenage girl receiving your present will get some happiness from it.

Maybe a soap and glory set from Boots and and a pack of Adidas or Nike ankle socks

Sorry just saw the bit about branded …..😔 Maybe fleecy socks and a nice fluffy blanket like a pp said….. also practical if they are living in bad accommodation.

Thanks all, some great ideas on here to kick start me! Yes I'll think of it as more of a stocking and try and get lots of bits.

Perfume from Zara around 15.99. Perhaps a Fenty (make up in Boots) lip gloss.

😔😔😔

As someone who grew up poor and who's parents, whilst they wouldn't of sold what I received, would have made me feel guilty if I received something kind of fancy, i'd of liked things along the lines of

Fluffy socks
Pack of trainer socks
Lip balm/gloss
Perfume/body spray
Shower gel
Note pad & pen
Nail Polish
Shower puff
Necklace
Fluffy Dressing gown

Basically buy everything from Primark.

My parents wouldn't have appreciated me receiving bathbombs. Baths use up too much hot water and bath bombs can stain.

Fleece blanket, socks, puzzle book, hot chocolate mix, pens.

Fluffy blanket or oodie - something generic no theme
cosy socks or sports socks
skin care - although this could be tricky. My tween girls like Bubble, Byoma, teen nieces have far more expensive tastes, 15 niece is really into tropics.
makeup - again tricky but primer, setting sprays, clear mascara are fairly generic. w7 is fairly cheap, my tweens love it.
lip balms I don’t think I know any teen girl who didn’t use them
Bag - nice black tote bag. If she’s still in school she probably uses one for school.
Hot chocolate sets, B&M & homebargins do multi packs, I got my dd some Christmas cracker ones.
insulated travel cup/mug
nail care - clear polishes, files maybe nice nail stickers for Christmas

I would take a trip to Primark this weekend if possible as the one near me had quite a few things discounted yesterday.

I'd be looking for things like:

Snuddie
Hot water bottle
Slipper socks
Blanket
Those heartless curler things they all seem to use the padded sausage thing
Bath stuff

Make up brushes, nice body sprays, face wipes, body butter, chocolate

First of all, go somewhere like Lidl or Superdrug and get one of the knock off Sol de Jainero body sprays.
Then get yourself to Primark! DD turned 15 recently and had an expensive present so wasn't going to get anything else but then I thought it was a bit sad to have nothing to open on your 15th day so went to Primark and got her a remarkable amount of stuff for about £15. Fluffy socks were about £2, gloves a similar price and scarves a little more. Black or grey are the best colours I'd say. Then nail files and buffers were only about £1, they had bands to keep your hair off your face when washing your face (all of the influencers use these so, even if you have successfully washed your face for decades without doing this, they are a thing now!), bands to stop water runnng down your wrists for £2 or so each. So you could combine those with the body spray and do a little beauty pack.
And then add a selection pack or something like that.

I was in Sainsbury's earlier, they had some really lovely soft thick socks and all the TU stuff is 25% off at the moment.

I would do that with maybe some nice lip balm and some face packs.

I was going to say the same, I've just picked up some cute fluffy socks that were £4.50 but then had the 25% off nectar offer on top.

id do it like a stocking

lip balm
face mask/foot mask/under eye patches (although slightly more expensive id go for a branded face mask as some of the cheaper ones can burn)
fun blemish patches
fluffy socks
chocolate/sweets/biscuits/popcorn
mug
hot chocolate sachets
nail file/varnish
shower gel/bubble bath/bath bomb
hand cream/body butter/scrub

Only thing I can think to avoid is hair care as you dont know the race of the child meaning you could be buying things they cant use at all. and clothing other than socks as you dont know their size.
and maybe alternate things, if you're getting hot chocolate then get some sweets incase there is a dairy allergy/dislike and then they aren't completely missing out?

can probably get most items in home bargains/b&m to keep the overall cost down but maximum amount of bits?

A lovely warm blanket or oodle, lipgloss, hair ties, face masks, warm socks, maybe a dressing gown. I bet you could get lots from Primark.

Well...I'm done! I wasn't planning on doing it until tomorrow but after reading a few posts for inspo I bit the bullet and went to B&M!

Thank you for everyone who posted ideas, as soon as I got going it wasn't too bad 😊

That looks really lovely great job

That looks amazing, well done, I'm sure the girl will be really happy with that 😊