5 Reasons to Let Your Kids Get Creative With Their Fashion Choices, With PatPat’s Albert Wang
"This sense of self-discovery is exciting for both parents and children.”
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Published Jan. 30 2025, 8:17 p.m. ET
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For many parents, one of the biggest challenges in life is finding the right clothing for their children. Quite often, this is a decision that parents take upon themselves, doing all the busy work of both purchasing outfits and choosing what their child wears each day. But in reality, letting your kids get creative with their fashion choices and choose their own clothing can create win-wins for parents and children alike.
During a recent interview with Albert Wang, co-founder and CEO of PatPat, a children’s clothing company, he went into detail about the surprising benefits of letting children get creative and take ownership of their fashion choices.
1. Give Kids a Sense of Control
“Young children aren’t in control of very much in their lives,” Albert says. “They’re told where to go, what to eat, and more. This is especially true of toddlers, who often have everything from nap time to meals chosen by their parents. Giving children control over something simple, like their fashion choices, helps empower them so they can feel more capable and confident.”
This sense of control can also help children increase their self-esteem. Knowing they have their parents' trust and some control over aspects of their lives can provide an emotional boost that positively impacts their lives.
2. Build Good Decision-Making Skills
Another notable element of letting kids make their own fashion choices is that it inherently builds their decision-making capabilities. “As children grow older, they will need to make more important choices each day,” Albert says.
“Letting them choose which toddler clothes they want to wear gives them the opportunity to practice their critical thinking skills as they consider the pros and cons, as well as the potential consequences, of different choices. Helping them develop these skills in a low-risk area, like picking an outfit, will help them be better prepared when they need to make more consequential decisions later.”
Children as young as 3 can make basic choices, and providing these opportunities can play a key role in helping them develop this skill at an age-appropriate level.
3. This Might Help End Outfit Battles
For some parents, choosing an outfit for their child can result in daily power struggles — the parent wants to pick a particular outfit, but the child doesn’t want to wear it (or even get changed out of their pajamas).
Giving children a sense of control by letting them make their own fashion choices is an obvious way to make such conflicts a thing of the past, but this doesn’t mean parents have to completely bow to their child’s decision (especially if they pick an inappropriate outfit).
Writing for USA Today, Eva Dwight offers several strategies that can help find a happy medium between parental and child control. For example, parents can offer limited choices, such as letting their child choose between two potential outfits. With older children, parents can work together and hold discussions with children to find compromise and maintain a sense of freedom in fashion choices while still setting reasonable guidelines.
4. Promote Creative Thinking
In addition to improving decision-making skills, Wang notes that giving kids greater freedom over their fashion choices can also improve their creative thinking. “Putting together an outfit often involves experimenting with different clothing combinations,” Albert says.
“Things like deciding which character they want on their shirt today, what colors to pair together for pants and shirts or picking out different accessories to go along with the clothing all involve creative thinking. Encouraging this type of creative expression can help children develop their creative and abstract thinking abilities — attributes that will serve them well in other areas of life.”
In fact, a survey by the World Economic Forum found that 73% of organizations view creative thinking skills as a top priority when hiring talent. Who knows where creative outfit choices could take your kids?
5. Develop Self-Expression and Identity
Children begin to develop a sense of self around age 2 — and as they continue to develop and learn, the activities they do on their own can play a key role in their social-emotional development and their concept of who they are. In addition to offering specific praise and showing interest in their child’s interests, parents can help children develop their sense of self when they allow the freedom to get creative with fashion choices.
“Choosing an outfit is a way for children to express who they are, helping them share their interests or their mood,” Albert explains. “As kids are given the opportunity to explore who they are through their clothing choices, this can actually contribute to their sense of identity. They learn that they are someone who likes a particular color or character, or that they are someone who likes particular types of clothing. This sense of self-discovery is exciting for both parents and children.”
While letting your children pick out their own outfits may seem like a simple thing, it can do much more for your child than eliminating a morning battle. By giving your children a greater sense of control, they can improve their own decision-making skills and creativity while also building greater confidence as they develop their own sense of identity and self-expression.
No matter how your child chooses to express themselves through fashion, this can create major wins.