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Heard on the Playground

What's New This Month

Trend Watch

Heard on the Playground

When was the last time you had a school lunch?

WonderGroup was curious as to what’s up in high school cafeterias so we headed out last week to cruise and schmooze. While we weren’t allowed to sit at the cool table, we did see and hear a lot…

Time is precious…only 30 minutes from start to finish to eat and socialize. Maybe squeeze in a little cramming for an afternoon test or quiz. Teens want lunch FAST! The boys claim eating takes priority over talking since they’re hungry. Most teens probably skipped breakfast, and it’s a long wait until after-school snack time. They can’t wait to eat. That probably explains why so many bring their lunch—no waiting in the lunch line!

Many still have mom pack their lunch, but teens let mom know what they like. No PB&J, please—that’s for little kids. Teens are hungry and want lots to eat, but keep the prep time down to a minimum. Few have access to a microwave. Absolutely NO lunch boxes—it’s brown paper bags everywhere. Sandwiches, cookies, chips, veggies—a lot like what we eat—just more of it for the boys, especially!

There’s also some grazing going on, too. Teens were cruising around and sampling a little bit of this and that from each other’s lunches. Mostly it’s the girls doing this as a way to socialize with more people. Someone may be in charge of bringing veggies, and someone else grabs a bag of cookies to share.

As to what they are serving in the caf—that’s a lot different today, too. The lunch ladies still serve, but the food at least looks better. There is definitely some branding going on, although the teens would like to see their entire cafeteria turned into a giant Wendy’s. Perception is the teen’s reality—branded burgers just taste better than the generic ones—they swear!

Even though there is a lot of choice in today’s lunchroom, from salad bars and made-to-order wrap sandwiches, to daily specials and french fries, most teens claim they want more. There are freezers of branded ice cream, refrigerated juice drinks, soda pop and water. Soup of the day, yogurt, pasta, pizza and hot sandwiches still do not quite satisfy because it’s still the school lunchroom and not Burger King!

While the average cost of lunch runs about $2.00 to $3.00 in the lunchroom, most teens are on a budget that satisfies their hunger needs. They look for something that tastes good and fills them up but is still reasonably priced. They are not looking for variety as much as good taste.

In summary, no one we talked to was raving about the cafeteria food. They’ve gotten used to it over the years and now look forward to being seniors when they can leave campus and enjoy a really good lunch at a local fast food place!

What's New This Month

Toys Prove to Be a Dog-Eat-Dog World

Where can toy companies turn as their ever-evaporating market continues to shun them? Once again they have turned their attention to man’s best friend. While some of last year’s hottest toys were Robo-pets of all varieties, Kidscreen reports in their March issue that Hasbro has once again looked to canines for help. This time though, the dogs are not the toys but, in fact, the targets of a new line called Paws ‘N More.

Paws ‘N More combines several classic toys from Hasbro with PetsMart’s expertise in pet toys. PetsMart is the largest specialty retailer of services to pets with over 530 pet superstores in the United States and Canada. The line of 20 items exclusively hit the shelves of PetsMart last month, and what many classic toys did for children, these animal versions are all designed to aid in the development of the little kittens and puppies.

The $500-million to $700-million pet toy business is fed mostly by owners who look to return the loyalty they receive from their pets. PetsMart’s market research shows that this pampering of pets is increasing with 68% of pet owners cooking special meals and another 79% letting their pets sleep with them.

The new line includes a Puppy’s First Key Teether and Catch-A-Fish Mobile for Cats. The Puppy Stacker was inspired by the classic stacking toy for children with multi-colored rings. The toy teaches dogs how to fetch and then stack the chewable rings.

The toys will be moving to mass retail in June, and range in price from $4 to $20. The question is, will kids find a way to get their Robo-pets to play with these toys too?

CyberStats

Teens Wired in a Major Way

"Nothing" is a common answer for parents to get when they ask their teenager what they have been doing on the computer all day. Well, Family PC magazine didn’t buy that response either, so they polled over 500 12- to 17-year-old teens to get to the bottom of things.

Generation Y is already thought to be the first group to already be taking computers for granted, with three quarters saying their family had one before they were 12. The other quarter were in kindergarten or younger when their first computer was purchased. This includes the nearly 10 percent that said the computer stork stopped by their house before the baby stork.

These family computers may not be enough for these teens since almost two out of three must compete for time on the computer with siblings or parents, while the other third have computers in their room. Why do they need to get on so bad? Probably because they need to do homework. Sixty-two percent of boys and 51 percent of girls take a computer class at school.

Of course, the most common reason for using a computer for these teens is to truly stay connected. Eighty-three percent use e-mail to keep in touch with distant friends and family. They also manage to spend a little bit of time visiting their favorite sites like eBay, Hotmail, mtv.com, Napster, and Yahoo!.

Kids

J.Crew to Launch New Line for Children

The $700-million catalog-based company is launching a children’s clothing line called J.Crew Kid this spring. This move marks an attempt by the retailer to compete with youth-oriented chains like Old Navy, Gap Kids and Limited Too.

The focus of the line is "geared toward adventurous, fun-loving, and independent in spirit and style boys and girls aged 6-to-12" according to a company-released announcement. The line will reflect the same casual feel of the adult line with T-shirts, tank tops, dresses, outerwear, shoes, swimwear, jeans and chinos.

According to a company press release, the same emphasis on detail will be apparent in the stitching, embroidery and trim. Also, everything will be machine-washable and available in sizes ranging from 4-14 for girls and 4-16 for boys. The prices on items will range from $12.50 for T-shirts to $38 dollars for dresses and zip-off pants.

J.Crew Kid will be available at J.Crew Stores in Chicago, Houston, Boston and Sacramento with the new store concept consisting of special furniture and décor geared specifically for their new young consumers. J.Crew plans to follow this up with a catalog launch in July 2001 that will include an insert of the "back to school" collection.

Tweens

A Whole New Kind of Sock Hop

While one of my biggest worries in grade school was having sweaty palms during the dreaded square dance sessions, it appears that today’s tweens have something new to worry about . . . having sweaty palms during their ballroom dancing. That’s right, according to Time Magazine, ballroom dancing is gaining popularity in all parts of the country.

How popular is it becoming? A community of dancers is campaigning for competitive ballroom dancing to be included in the 2008 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee did recognize dance sport as a legitimate sport in 1997. If that were to happen, there may be some future Olympians in the most unlikely places, like Edgewood High School in Madison, Wisconsin. That is where half of the school’s 480 students chose to take ballroom-dance class to fulfill their physical-education requirement.

While it may not conjure up the traditional memories many of us have of gym class, it does accomplish many of the same benefits—like quality cardiovascular exercise, coordination, muscle tone, and balance.

There are also great lessons in social interaction and self confidence that kids may not always get participating in traditional gym activities.

Hollywood is doing its best to help this push in dancing’s popularity. Movies like Dance with Me and Swingers both revolve heavily around dancing while other popular movies like What Women Want, The Mask of Zorro and Blast from the Past all have ballroom routines during the course of the film. It helps for kids to see popular stars incorporate dance in such a cool way.

The best part of this dancing craze is the fact that it may not be a craze at all, but in fact the start of something that will be around for a while. These tweens are not stopping after their introductory classes. They are seeking out camps and competitions to build upon their step repertoires. The end result is well-developed youngsters that will have a thing or two to show at the next wedding reception.

Teens

And the Oscar for Best Movie to Inspire Teen Fashion Trends Goes to . . .

Charlie’s Angels!?! OK, while it appears that Charlie’s Angels doesn’t have much chance of taking home a golden statue unless the academy adopts this fictitious category in the next week, it has already made a mark on teens choices for Best Costumes. According to fashionavenue.com, teen-focused films still have a huge influence on the fashion world.

It is movies that attract teen audiences—and not just movies with teens in them—that serve as window displays to what will be hot. The current message teens are taking away from movies is that it is cool to be out there, to dress a little differently. Boys are wearing tighter clothes and longer hair. Several of last year’s club-inspired fashions were based on films like Go and Groove.

This year the 80s have shown up in several films. Thus, rhinestones, lightening bolts and unicorns on T-shirts have been very popular. A couple of teen cheerleader films, like Bring It On and Sugar and Spice, have helped a whole new line of gym wear appear on the runway.

Of course, I have already given away the big winner for inspiring teen fashion. Experts agree that the movie was very hip in terms of fashion. Katayone Adeli’s designs were able to accentuate the rugged female action figures in a way that was still very feminine.

Trend Watch

A Trend We’d All Like to See End

This month’s trend is more of a reality check. Unfortunately, this is a trend that has been around for a while and more unfortunately, is probably here to stay. School violence recently resurfaced as a major issue. A report done on student surveys of The Metropolitan Life Survey of The American Teacher, conducted in 1993 and 1999 by Harris Interactive, recently released some key findings. These findings are based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of public school students in grades 3 through 12. (Total: 1044)

12 percent of students in grades 3-12 have carried a weapon to school; Boys were more likely than girls to have carried a weapon to school (17 percent vs. 7 percent); 17 percent of students in grades 7-12 have carried a weapon to school.

Despite these findings, 92 percent of students felt safe when they were at school. This included 56 percent who felt very safe when they were at school—an increase from 1993 (50 percent). Boys and girls were equally likely to report that they felt very safe in school (56 percent vs. 57 percent).

17 percent of students in grades 7-12 have carried a weapon to school, yet, 56 percent felt very safe when they are at school—an increase from 1993 (50 percent).

25 percent of students have been the victim of a violent act that occurred in or around school.

15 percent of students were very worried about being physically attacked in or around their school.

30 percent of students were very concerned about school shootings happening in their school.

26 percent of students in grades 7-12 were very concerned about students at their school having easy access to handguns and other firearms.

In 1999, students in grades 7-12 reported that 5 percent (median) of students at their school regularly carried weapons such as handguns or knives to school.

47 percent of students said that it was easy for students at their school to get access to handguns or other firearms.

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See you in April!