What I Discovered on My Teen Daughter’s Pinterest
Recent conversation with my 14-year-old…
Me: “What are you working on, Sweetie?”
Her: “Oh, I’m just on Pinterest.”
Me: “Really? What are you doing?”
Her: “Just getting ideas”
Doubts that hit my brain….
“Again? She’s always on Pinterest.”
“Should I let her be on so much?”
“Is she being productive?”
“Is this helping her grow?”
(These is the same “in-my-head” conversations I had when she was younger and always had her nose in a book.)
We've been teaching our 5 daughters to develop healthy tech habits. [Read 5 Tips for Healthy Tech Habits in Your Family] So, I needed to trust her. I bit my tongue, walked away and prayed, asking God to work in Julia if she was developing unhealthy habits. I reminded myself of the guiding Bible verse of our girls’ home education. (Isaiah 54:13. “All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace”).
Then I realized I hadn't checked up on Julia’s boards recently. We have taught our girls to stay safe online, and I haven’t had any reason not to trust her. And since I do more searching than “roaming” on Pinterest, I hadn’t been keeping up with her pins. So, I took a peek at Julia's Pinterest. And I was surprised!
I discovered that, in the mere year since she started her boards, she had gained 500+ followers with her 7000 pins. Wow! She was reaching people. She had a “voice” that was being heard. 500+ people were interested in the things she found worthy of pinning.
Julia's Pinterest is a picture of who she is. Her boards are arranged beautifully (that coming from her OCD-ish mother). She has tons of art and writing inspiration boards, boards to organize original story ideas, a TaeKwonDo board, a full board of “funnies”, Minecraft and so much more. My favorite is her “I love Jesus!” board… full of pins honoring her Savior, pins that her 500+ followers are seeing too.
I was delighted as I explored the Christian Artists group board Julia joined with my permission a while back. The teens upload their original artwork and encourage one another. They put up challenges and ask each other for ideas. They are using Pinterest in a more productive way than many adults.
I learned quite a bit more about my daughter during my tour of her Pinboards. I discovered…
- What inspires her
- What interests her
- What makes her laugh
- How she is developing in her self-education
- How confident she is (confident enough to tell the world in her bio that she is the “nerdiest nerd to ever nerd”)
4 Reasons I'm Sharing This
So, why am I sharing this with you, my momma friend?
- To brag on my girl. I’ll be totally honest…I think Julia is one of the most special people on Earth, and I want the world to know it. You (or your teen daughter) can find out what an amazing person she is by following her on Pinterest.
- To inspire you to let your kids use Pinterest. All my girls started with boards on my account, and then, once they turn 13, they get their own accounts. With Pinterest, they have a place to store and organize all that interests them online. Not only are they learning about the specific topics, but they are learning how to curate websites to determine what is “pin-worthy”
- To remind you to check in on your teens' Pinterest. You may not be as surprised as I was, but you will learn lots about your teen like I did.
- To encourage you to connect with your kids through Pinterest. When you are using Pinterest and see pins that remind you of your child, send the pin to them. Just click “Send” at the top of the pin and type your child’s name. Chances are they will feel loved because you thought of them while you were lost in Pinterest-land.
Oh, and #5…to remind myself of all this when I have doubts about Julia's time on Pinterest.
How about you? What has been your experience with your teens and Pinterest?
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First read this post through IG, so tada, we do click over. Loved this post so glad to find it again at the link up. Thanks for sharing, a great reminder to go check out my social butterfly daughter’s account.
Thanks for the encouragement, Jen. As you know, it’s always nice to know when someone can put what you write into practice. I hope that you learn more about your daughter when you check out her account.
Now you’ve got me all curious and I would love to follow her boards…esp that Christian art group one. Good job momma
Saphhire – Pinterest is a great tool for homeschoolers. Do you use it? I checked out your blog and see that you have younger kids. My younger girls have boards on my personal account where they store ideas that interest them. Your “artsy princess” might like to start keeping some boards.
This is a lovely post. I absolutely love your guiding Bible verse. Thanks so much for sharing that!
Thanks, Tina! Writing this gave me lots of joy because I felt more connection with my daughter.
I love your #5! 😉 My daughter also has a Pinterest account and I love to see what she pins! Thank you for sharing with us at Faith Filled Parenting! We hope you’ll join us again tomorrow!
What a sweet post! Pinterest is a great way to inspire and be inspired. I’m glad your daughter has found a creative outlet she enjoys and one that you can enjoy together!
This is so lovely! I love seeing how active, interested, worldly, and engaged the younger teens are online! It’s great to see them being able to interact in a meaningful way with the world, especially in a way completely different from our own teenage years. I’m glad that your daughter has found an online community that’s safe and actively enjoying her presence.
My daughter pins cute animals and crafts. And sends me suggestions of pins for us to do together all the time. It amuses me.
Don’t you love that connection?
I love this post! And I find the same with my daughters. Another thing I like to do: Wish List Boards. We all three keep them. Scrolling through Pinterest, we see lots of great things we might want, do they are added to the wish list. When birthdays roll around, that’s my first stop for ideas!
Wish list boards are a great idea!
I love your post. However, I do want to add a warning about Pinterest. I had not checked my daughter’s boards in a long time either, and just happened to tonight. (Stumbled upon this post looking for help with parental controls for Pinterest.) She had recently created a locked board, which made me curious. She has pinned some soft porn pictures and saved as beautiful. So, Pinterest is definitely not as safe as it seems. It will definitely give us the chance to have a conversation, so please pray for me if you think about it before I bring this up to her and try to set some different online limits.
Will definitely pray for you and discernment regarding this situation. Thank you for sharing – we unfortunately can’t ever let down our guard completely, but I hope you are able to have a good conversation with your daughter about this.