Teenagers usually have a lot of interests, but if yours is looking for a fun, creative outlet, this list of creative hobbies might give them some inspiration.
All of these hobbies will develop skills and teach you something, but remember that your kid has to want to do something, especially if it’s for fun. Don’t feel like they have to spend every minute doing something “worthwhile,” because a lot of good hobbies don’t look that way from the outside.
From the inside viewpoint, creativity helps people develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and the best creative hobbies will give your teenager an outlet where they’re not expected to accomplish anything. Sometimes it’s fine to just mess around and have fun.
On the other hand, some hobbies do help to develop skills that can be used later in life, so I’ve added those in, too!
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Photography
Photography is a popular hobby for everyone of any age. Learning to use digital cameras and the editing that goes along with that is accessible because of cell phone cameras and online photo editing software and tutorials.
Learning film photography is a little more involved, but teenagers who are interested in digital photography would probably also enjoy the manual version. Taking a darkroom class can help you to hone in on the details that make a great picture, and the concepts transfer to digital photography, too.
Graphic design and digital art
Learning to create digital art and graphics is an interesting hobby, and it’s also a skill that can be valuable for school and for future jobs. Most teens have a basic grasp on how to do some graphics because they’re so familiar with computers, but really taking the time to learn more involved processes can be a fun hobby.
This kind of skill could also be used for other hobbies in the visual arts, and could lead to money-making opportunities down the road.
Music production
Music production can include things like making beats, composing music, or mixing tracks.
This is obviously going to be more for someone who’s a music fan, but it’s also surprisingly good for people who have really mathematical brains. A lot of musicians have a very math-oriented approach to music, especially if they’re in the technical side of the music industry.
If you have a teen who likes music and math, the engineering side of it might be more interesting to them than the performance side of it.
Drawing and sketching
Drawing is a classic hobby that anyone can do, and that has a wide variety of tools available for every skill level.
Whether it’s sketching in a sketch diary or creating large-scale illustrations or portraits, drawing with pencils, pens, crayons, pastels, or whatever other media you can find, can be a fun outlet for a teenager’s creativity.
Creative writing
Most teenagers think of writing as something that they have to do for school, but for the ones who really enjoy it, creative writing could be a good fit.
This can be as formal as they want it to be, but just writing down their thoughts in the form of a story or a poem can be something that’s helpful for figuring out life, too! Storytelling is very cathartic for a lot of people, so it’s a good fit for the teen years.
Woodworking
Working with wood and building things can be done on a small scale or as large as making furniture from scratch. You might want to start a teen out by doing some furniture refinishing to make a “new” design out of something that you thrifted, but if they’re really interested you might end up with more complicated finished pieces.
This is a hobby that requires some specialized equipment including safety equipment, so make sure everything is properly set up for safety!
Coding and programming
This is a hobby that a lot of parents might think isn’t a hobby, but it’s a skill that a lot of people don’t have. Most kids will have a passing familiarity with coding and programming, but if your teen enjoys is, don’t think that it isn’t creative!
Writing code is a lot more creative than it looks from the outside, and it’s a very valuable skill to have. Just make sure that your teen is taking breaks from staring at the screen and that they aren’t on the keyboard all day, since repetitive motion injuries are becoming more common in younger people!
DIY electronics
Electronics is another hobby that involves a bunch of science skills without being really obvious about it.
Building circuits and designing or fixing electronic equipment develops problem-solving skills and manual dexterity. It can also build skills that could be involved in employment in the future.
Animation
If your teen likes illustration or digital art, learning animation could be fun way to combine those.
Whether it’s computer animation or the old-fashioned manual or stop action claymation-type animation, this can be a fun hobby that lets you end up with a product that you can share to showcase your work.
Cooking or baking
If your teen likes to cook, encourage that! If you have kitchen skills you can get them started, but knowing how to make their way around a stove is a life skill that a lot of kids don’t have.
Using cookbooks and some basic equipment and ingredients, your entire household will benefit if you have a teen who likes to cook. Planning menus and executing the tasks they need to make the meal is a fun hobby, so give yourself a break and let the teenagers cook!
They can also take up cake decorating, which involves baking plus the extra steps of decorating the main food centerpiece item for a party.
Model building
Building modela and miniatures is a hobby that spans generations, and it can get really obsessive! There are model railroad clubs that build scale models of large train setups with towns and landscaping that they travel through.
You can get scale-model kits of cars, airplanes, motorcycles, boats, and more, or you can make them yourself. Making miniatures of everyday objects is also related to dollhouses, which is the next thing on the list.
Dollhouses and miniatures
Making miniatures is a hobby that’s easy to get started with, and a lot of people continue to participate in dollhouse collecting and miniature railroad setups well into their adult years.
Making miniatures involves design, math, and construction skills, and you can also take those skills into professions like architecture and building mockups for theatrical sets.
Robotics
A lot of high schools have robotics teams now, because it’s a fun hobby that lets you be creative but that also teaches a lot of scientific principles.
Robotics are used in so many things that you don’t even think about…I know someone who worked at a company that had a full robotics department because they built the animatronics for amusement parks. It’s a lot more complicated than you’d think.
Film making
Making films is more accessible these days since people can film on their phones, edit on their computers, and premiere their films on Youtube.
Filmmaking involves technical skills, but it also includes writing for scripts and acting, which are skillsets on their own.
Magic tricks
Learning magic tricks is something that I would guess a teenager would have to be interested in from a younger age, but when you see a street magician do things right in front of you, it could be something that a teen would get interested in learning.
It’s definitely a performance skill, and people are genuinely intrigued by how magic works, so this is a hobby that kids who aren’t completely afraid of performing for people would probably enjoy.
Cosplay
If you have a teen who’s a big fan of a video game, comic book, or movie, they might want to get involved with creating costumes and props to go to a local Comicon or another convention that focuses on the topic they love.
I know people who turned their cosplay costuming skills into theatrical careers and careers doing special effects for television and the movies. Most people do cosplay for their own enjoyment, though, and there’s no need to try to make a career out of it. Just have fun designing and creating your own unique costumes.
There are a lot of craft materials that you can buy now to make cosplay costumes at home, so the supplies are easier to find than they used to be.
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Comic book art
Drawing comics or manga-style artwork can be a fun hobby for kids who like to draw for their own enjoyment. If you’re trying to do “real” artwork it can put pressure on you, but comics kind of feel like the stakes are lower.
Don’t be fooled, though, because making comics involves creating characters, storylines, and scripts, then executing it all successfully. There’s a lot that goes into creating comic book art even if it doesn’t feel as “serious” as other forms of artwork.
Journaling
Journaling can be a good hobby for a teenager who’s introspective, or who likes documenting things. It’s different from creative writing because journaling is more about recording your thoughts instead of coming up with stories or a structured written composition.
Either way, writing can be therapeutic, and if they want to add some paper crafting to it, they can make their own junk journals to use.
Junk journaling and bookbinding
Junk journaling involves assembling paper ephemera and pages to create a decorated journal that you can then use for writing. Junk journals can be used as a diary or scrapbook, or as a keepsake for a special trip or event.
You can also make the books yourself instead of just decorating them, so learning some bookbinding skills is another thing to try.
Painting
Painting is a classic creative hobby, and you can choose whatever medium you like. Oils, acrylics, watercolors, or mixed media will appeal to different people, so let your teenager decide which one they prefer.
Painting is also something that you can either learn by doing, or by watching tutorial videos, A combination of YouTube video tutorials and trial-and-error will usually be what most teenagers end up doing.
Embroidery or sewing
Embroidery and sewing are relaxing hobbies, but they’re also practical ones. It’s good to know how to fix your clothing if something tears, or if your hem falls out!
If you’re doing hand embroidery it’s also a hobby that requires focus, so it will help your teen slow down and concentrate, which can be very relaxing. Plus, you’ll end up with a product that you can use or give to someone.
For a pencil pouch sewing project, click here.
Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking is a good hobby that your teen can to to preserve memories of high school or of special events they participate in,
It’s also the kind of gift that can be used to give as a birthday or Christmas present, so it can be a customized gift for famiy and friends.
Pottery or ceramics
Making pottery and ceramics is harder than you think, especially if you use a throwing wheel. Your teen will definitely enjoy mastering the craft, and they’ll end up with usable products that can be used in real life.
Check to see if there’s a local art studio that gives lessons to use their equipment, or you can get a small pottery wheel for your home, or try hand-building instead of throwing the clay.
Interior design
Learning the principles of interior design can be fun for a teenager, especially if you let them rearrange your furniture once they plan the whole thing out. Be brave and let them go nuts, you might be surprised how much you like the new furniture arrangements they come up with.
Gardening
Gardening is a fun hobby that can help to increase your home’s curb appeal! Even if you don’t have room for a garden, you can look into getting a indoor garden with hydroponics or a small herb garden in flowerpots.
If you do have an area that would be good for a garden in your yard, let your teenager do the research and plan it out, then do the work to plant everything. Growing flowers or vegatables can be very rewarding, and it’s an enjoyable hobby that involves learning about soil chemistry and other agricultural principles.
Fashion design
If your teenager is interested in drawing and fashion, fashion design can be a good combination of the two. Learning how to construct clothing is a valuable skill, and if they also learn how to sew they might even be able to make some of their own clothing.
I did costume design in high school and created the costumes for our school productions, so it’s something that can get them involved in other activities as well.
Making greeting cards
Designing and creating handmade greeting cards can be a fun hobby for kids who like papercrafting. These can be for their own personal use, or they could give them to friends and family.
This is also a pretty easy hobby to get started with since you can use basic materials that you probably have at home already. And for teens who are concerned about sustainability, cardmaking with mixed media materials can be good if they can upcycle them into the cards that they make.
Making melt and pour soap
Making soap can get a little complicated if you do the actual lye formulas, but there’s always melt and pour soap that you can set up for your teenagers. This kind of soapmaking is a lot simpler because it’s more about choosing the soap base and adding fragrances and other embellishments into the base.
This is a fun hobby that your teen can get into to personalize each batch of soap, and they’ll end up with something useful that they made and can be proud of.
Candlemaking
Candlemaking is a fun hobby that goes along with soapmaking a lot of the time. Learning how to design and pour handcrafted candles will let a teenager get creative, and will give them a finished product that they can use or share.
There’s a lot of crafting supplies for candlemaking that are available in stores, so it’s something that doesn’t need a lot of specialized equipment that’s hard to find.
Jewelry making
If you’ve ever been to the craft store, you probably know that there are a ton of craft supplies for making jewelry, so why not set your teen up with some of them? It might end up being the things that sparks their interest and keeps their attention.
If they want to get even more into the design part of it, they could make their own beads and other jewelry elements by using polymer clay or by learning to make their own glass beads. Polymer clay doesn’t need a lot of special equipment but glassmaking does, so that has to come into play.
Or your teen could even learn to make paper beads, which is another fun hobby.
Making paper beads
Making paper beads is fun, and all it takes is some paper, a beadmaking tool, and some glue. You can even use old magazines, so if your teen is concerned about recycling and upcycling, this might be a good fit.
You can read more about what to make with paper beads by clicking here.
Paper beads can be left natural or sealed using glue or polyurethane, and there are a lot of videos online about how to make them. It’s easy and gives you a fun result.
Knitting or crocheting
Needlework crafts are classics, and you can make a huge variety of things if you know how to knit or crochet. (Click here to read about the difference between knitting and crocheting.)
Little kids can learn to knit and crochet, so teenagers can definitely do it. Learning these crafts will open up a world of creativity that will let them make their own sweaters, blankets, gifts for friends, and lots of other things.
When I was in high school I knit long scarves for all of my friends one Christmas. It was fun to do and I personalized them for each person. And one of my friends’ daughters liked knitting so much, she also learned how to spin her own yarn! There are a lot of creative options that go with needle crafts.