Do girls stay more interested in stationery throughout secondary school?

[AustenitesUnite]

When DS, now in year 9, was about to start secondary school, we bought him all the required stationery that was specified by the school. He wasn't interested in any of it apart from the Bic 4-colour pens and Frixion erasable pens. Within one term much of it was lost or broken and he has happily survived with a couple of pens in his pocket.

DD is about to start year 7 in September and is so excited about all of the stationery. She has just had her birthday and chose a pencil case with various compartments, pen loops etc and a huge set of highlighter pens. We have bought her the required calculator, geometry set and various pens & pencils. She already has a huge collection of Legami pens, novelty erasers & pencil sharpeners, post-it notes and goodness knows what else!

If pencil case arranging was an Olympic sport, DD would be a gold medallist!!! She, and her friends, spend ages arranging their pencil cases to maximum aesthetic effect and it's lovely to see how enthusiastic they are about it all

So my question is does this last? Have you experienced the same differences between your DS's and DD's? Did your DD's end their school days with enough stationery in their pencil cases to stock a small branch of Ryman's? Or is this something that tweens grow out of?

I have a teen ds and DD who have either finished school or have nearly finished. Ds never gave a dam about stationery, usually had a broken biro at the bottom of his bag. DD loves it and chooses it carefully.

Oh yes!!!! She has a huge collection of the erasable pens ~ the seasonal ones are particular favourites!

She also has one of their pencil cases with matching items.

She is an avid reader and it's quite funny seeing her in Waterstone's, torn between the Legami stand and the books!

I’m still like this now and I’m 51!!

my 15 year old son is in year 11 and does what your son does….

Our Waterstone's is evil and has the Legami stand at the checkout...

Tbf DD switched to "boy stationery setting" after an attempt to fit in for year 7. It's me who's addicted!

We have a stationery bureau with cubbyholes for sticky tape, Post-its, staplers, sharpeners and various writing instruments. Wrapping paper and notebooks in the drawers below.
From 13yo DD got through her surplus of cute cartoony A4 copybooks in high school and now at University she uses a ring bound divided notebook (plain, lined and squares) with perforated pages. So she’s gone from quantity to utility. Same with highlighters.
DH is a pen maniac. Currently obsessing over buying a Parker 55(?) fountain pen. I’ve gone the opposite way and love a freeby plastic hotel pen. Use’em and lose’em.
Some of the new Japanese stationery inventions are fascinating and I’m about to feel my way around our local shop’s watercolour paper stock and W&N tins of paint pans before starting a Facebook course (ahem, we already have a full set of brushes).

Pencil cases are just the start, and young girls obsessing over them is completely understandable, a bit like dolls’ houses IMO.

Girls are encouraged to care about appearances of everything and to be into collecting stuff so I guess at that age it shows

2 DD’s here- only ever wanted the basic functional set. Pens, pencils, maths set.

nothing fancy, no pencil cases, everything just chucked in the bag. They did escalate to flash cards for revision but that’s it.

i do think it depends on social group. I remember being at school and everyone gathering to compare smelly rubbers, so I got into it too. No interest if it hadn’t been the social activity at school, and no interest in stationary now.

DD was exactly like this but it began to stop at about year 9. She still wants to have nice stationary ect. But values the quality over cuteness and keeps the stuff in her pencil case to a minimum so it is easier to find things.

DD started year 7 last September with a fully stocked, beautifully arranged pencil case and within a week she had shoved it in a drawer in her bedroom in favour of carrying a couple of pens, a pencil and a ruler in her blazer pocket. Apparently pencil cases aren't cool.

Generally speaking yes this is pretty accurate for most boys/girls. My 15 year old still likes her pretty stationery
Obviously there will be exceptions!

This is really interesting. Does your DD's school stipulate that they have to have a pencil case?

DD's new school lists a pencil case as part of the mandatory equipment and says that they have to have a clear one for exams.

DD chose a fabric pencil case but will use her DB's clear one for exams as he doesn't use it

They have an equipment list which includes a pencil case and they do regular checks but she said as long as she has a pen, pencil and ruler she passes the check. We also had to change her school bag in the first term so that she had the same as everyone else. She has changed so much this year trying to fit in but she's happy at school and doing well.

Many thanks. I find this so interesting as I know DD is desperate to fit in. Quite a few girls from her class will be going to the same secondary school and the ones that she's friendly with are constantly checking with each other about the uniform items and equipment which their DM's are buying for them.
.
It will be interesting to see what happens in September . . . . .

Another stationery geek here, though now im retired, its all a bit superfluous. I remember though the gel pen craze, ds 2 and 3 were in primary and they took pen stands with all their pens in every day. They blew all their pockets money on all the variations.