When Growing Up Makes You Hold a Little Tighter to Childhood
My daughter is sixteen this Christmas. She's reaching for independence and, in ways I didn't expect, reaching back for the tangible pieces of childhood too.
Leah Cooper · October 6, 2026
5 minute read
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Shop the whole Memory Maker listSixteen Is a Funny In-Between
There is so much about being sixteen that points forward.
Driving. Friends. Plans that don't always include us. Thinking about what comes after high school.
But they're not finished being kids.
I'm realizing more and more that growing up isn't this clean departure from childhood. There are pieces of it they still want to carry with them.
And maybe they should.
The past few years
I've Started Christmas Differently
I've gotten better about beginning Christmas in October.
Not decorating.
Not buying everything.
Not turning on Christmas music before Halloween.
Just paying attention.
I start a list. I listen a little more closely when my kids mention something. I ask questions about what they're interested in and what they actually want.
It gives me time to understand the why behind some of the things they're asking for instead of just filling a list. (I wrote more about that in how I plan her Christmas list.)
And this year, one conversation with my daughter stayed with me.
She Wanted Something That Was Hers
She told me she wanted a digital camera.
Which, at first, is a little funny when you think about it.
She has a phone. It takes great pictures. It's with her all the time.
So I asked her why.
Her answer wasn't really about the camera.
She wanted pictures that were hers.
Pictures she could take without thinking about whether she was going to post them.
No audience.
No opinions.
No need to present herself.
Just her friends, the places she goes, the ordinary things she wants to remember.
And suddenly the camera made perfect sense to me.
Maybe when everything is digital, tangible becomes the novelty. And maybe privacy does, too.
Not every beautiful thing has to be presented.
Some memories can just belong to you.
That's What I'm Giving Her for Christmas
So yes, we're giving her the camera.
But that's not really the gift.
I want to give her a way to collect this little stretch of her life while she's living it.
A way to take the picture and print it.
To write something beside it.
To pin one above her desk.
To put another in an album.
To throw a concert ticket, a note from a friend or some tiny thing I would probably mistake for clutter into a box because, to her, it belongs to a memory.
That's how the idea for her Memory Maker gift came together.
Not because she needs more stuff.
Because she wants something real to hold onto.
The Memory Maker Gift Set
For capturing life, not posting it.
The camera started the idea, but I'm building the gift around what she actually wants: a way to capture this season of her life and make some of it tangible.
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Shop the whole Memory Maker listSee everything in one place on Amazon.- View camera →
Digital Camera
A camera that's separate from her phone, for capturing the everyday pieces of her life simply because she wants to remember them.
- View printer →
Mini Photo Printer
For getting the pictures she loves out of a digital library and into her hands.
- View paper →
Canon Printer Paper
So there's always a sheet waiting when she wants something printed the same day.
- View album →
Photo Album
A place for the pictures she wants to keep together rather than scroll past.
- View pin board →
Pin Board
For the friends, places and little moments she wants around her right now.
- View memory box →
Memory / Picture Box
For the pictures, tickets, notes and little things that belong to the memory.
- View pens →
Gel Pens
For dates, captions, inside jokes and the little details she might want to remember later.
Double-Sided Tape
An easy way to add photos and little keepsakes without turning it into a project.
- View candle warmer →
Candle Warmer
Not really about making the memories—just about creating a cozy little place to sit with them.
Want everything in one place?
View the complete Memory Maker list on Amazon →Maybe This Is Part of Growing Up Too
I've spent a lot of time thinking about preparing my kids for independence.
That's part of the job.
But I'm realizing there is another part of the job that doesn't get talked about quite as much.
We don't have to rush them out of childhood just because they're capable of growing up.
My daughter can love having her own car and still want printed pictures of her friends on her bedroom wall.
She can be thinking about her future and still want a box filled with pieces of her past.
Those things don't contradict each other.
Maybe that's exactly what sixteen is.
What I Want Her to Keep
Four years from now, my two oldest will both be out of high school.
I know how quickly that is going to happen.
So this Christmas I'm less interested in finding the biggest pile of things to put under the tree.
I'm paying attention to what my kids are telling me about who they are becoming—and what they're not quite ready to leave behind.
For my daughter this year, that happens to look like a camera, a printer and a box waiting to be filled.
But the gift isn't really any of those things.
It's permission to keep some of her life just for herself.
To notice it.
To hold onto it.
And someday, to open that box and remember what being sixteen felt like.
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