iBbeautiful Tween Subscription Box Review – August 2015

iBbeautiful is a subscription box for teen and tween girls with inspiring accessory and beauty products, plus a positive message! iBbeautiful wants to help girls be confident, smart, brave, unique, and kind. This is a review of the tween version!

The theme for August is Be Your Selfie. All themes are now emailed in advance to subscribers (aka parents!) so you can be prepared to discuss the theme with your tween or teen. It helps you as a parent think about what you want to discuss when you open the box. The letter to parents was so great this month that I have to include it!

This month’s theme started out very differently than it ended.  As the mother of a teen I have viewed the ever-present ‘Selfie’ as a veil that my kid hides behind.  I personally find the constant ‘selfie-ing’ as super annoying and simply just one more reason for my child to be constantly attached to her phone….aka the bane of my existence.

My original thought process was to call this theme…”Don’t Hide Behind Your Selfie…BE Your Selfie”, with the message to young girls to be themselves as opposed to posting pics of themselves in what I construed as something akin to vanity shots.  As I was designing the tee shirt graphic, my own teen came up behind me and said, “Your theme makes no sense”.  She then went on to explain that girls who feel confident about themselves are the ones that take selfies.  That taking a selfie is by definition a statement that you are feeling good about yourself.  Our conversation continued with me telling her my views on how I feel that girls are just hiding behind these photos instead of developing who they are out in the real world.  My daughter then went on to explain to me that for her age group putting up a selfie of yourself doing various activities is exactly that…showing the world who you are.

So, after a lot of thought and contemplation I realized that in order to better understand the teen/tween mind I had to get more in touch with their point of view and abandon my middle-aged mind set.  I think you’ll agree with me that the whole smart phone era is not something that us parents can always understand the way our kids do.  Trying to put myself back in time to my teens I began to realize that if I had the technology then that these kids do now I would see the ‘selfie’ like they do.  It’s not really bragging or vanity, it’s about showing the world who you are and how you envision yourself.  I consulted with our very astute core focus group we have over here at iBbeautiful, and all of the teen/tween minded sages agreed that the selfie does, in fact, stand for confidence in oneself.  So, our theme was then mindfully changed to…
BELIEVE IN YOUR…..#SELFIE

Hope your girls and gift recipients truly enjoy this month’s box which includes a selfie stick, clip on fish lens, hash tag necklace, anklet (teen), self stick selfie mirrors for phone (tween), baggu re-useable bag and of course, our monthly message of empowerment!

Every box includes a “theme” card as well as an information card on the products inside. iBbeautiful always includes a positive message for girls in their boxes.

Everything in the August iBbeautiful tween box! Please note that the tween shirt is included as an example – the shirt boxes may vary slightly from what’s in the regular boxes.

Selfie Stick: I have to say… I was personally so excited to get one of these (no, I didn’t have one!), and I think any teen girl would be too.  My kids went WILD with it and I can also confirm that the shutter connection also works to start videos. I believe I’m going to be treated to a great many selfie videos in the near future. This is just a fun and handy device! We took a photo of my phone set up in it (protip – don’t set it up so your volume buttons are depressed on the phone shelf  or you’ll end up with thousands of photos).

The Fish Eye Lens is pictured below the selfie stick. It comes in a little bag with a lens cap!

The Fish Eye lens is also very cool and yes, it works! It just slides right over your smartphone camera lens and creates a fish eye effect! Perfect for fun selfies or taking interesting photos – and keeping the background out!

“Baggu” Reusable Bag: Whoops, this isn’t an authentic Baggu. I reached out to iBbeautiful and they let me know that their supplier had misrepresented the inventory. It’s definitely not baggu quality but still handy to have.

3C4G Selfie Mirrors – You can stick these on lockers, your closet, wherever for a quick check of your appearance.  They are designed to fit on the back of your phone or case so you can see yourself before you snap a pic! I may steal one of these 🙂

Hashtag Necklace – This was a cute and fun necklace and I think tweens would totally dig it. Hashtags are not going anywhere. I know we all hashtag everything even if we’re not on Twitter or Instagram. #youknowit

Detail of the necklace

Believe in your #Selfie Shirt – Our iBbeautiful shirts are among our most worn shirts around here! My daughter really gravitates to the designs and the messages and they have held up really well – she wears one or two every single week! She is wearing her favorite one in the photo below!

What a great theme!!

Visit iBbeautiful to subscribe or find out more. You can also check out all our iBbeautiful Reviews or take a look at other Subscription Boxes Great for Teens & Tweens.