Teens today have endless options when it comes to creative hobbies and activities to pursue in their free time. Having a creative outlet can be beneficial for mental health, self-expression, skill development, and simply beating boredom. Here are some of the top creative hobby ideas for teens to try.
Visual Arts
Exploring visual arts is a great creative hobby for teens. Drawing, painting, photography, and graphic design allow teens to tap into their visual creativity. Supplies needed can be as simple as a pencil and paper or get more complex with cameras, software, and tools. If you’re fostering in Scotland, use some of your allowance to pay for materials.
For drawing and painting, teens can start by practising the fundamentals of shapes, shading, perspective, and colour mixing by following online tutorials or taking local community art classes. Abstract art using mixed media collage techniques is also popular among teens as it encourages free experimentation with textures, colours, and composition.
Photography and graphic design hobbies can start on a smartphone and expand into DSLR cameras, photo editing software, and tools like Adobe Creative Suite. There are many online tutorials and communities teens can join to develop their skills and get feedback.
Performing Arts
From music to theatre, performing arts hobbies allow teens to express themselves. Learning an instrument like guitar, piano, or drums, or joining the school band allows teens to unleash their musical creativity. Forming a band with friends or writing original songs can be very fulfilling.
Theatre hobbies like acting, improv comedy, stage production, and set design tap into a teen’s creativity in a lively social setting. Many schools and youth theatres put on productions teens can get involved in. There are also open mic nights for stand-up comedy they can attend.
DIY Crafts
Teens who enjoy working with their hands may enjoy various DIY craft hobbies. Sewing and knitting/crocheting allow teens to design and create unique clothing items, accessories, and decorative objects. Supplies like fabric, yarn, patterns, and needles can be easily sourced.
Other crafts like jewellery making, candle making, papercrafts like origami/card making, and leatherworking are fun creative hobbies teens can pick up through online tutorials. Building models, miniatures, and dioramas are also hands-on hobbies teens may enjoy learning.
Creative Writing
For teens who prefer using their creativity with words, taking up creative writing hobbies like poetry, journaling, song lyrics, and fiction stories can be very enjoyable. Joining a writing club, taking a class, or finding a critique group either online or locally helps inspire teen writers to keep creating and improving.
Teens can start a blog or share their work on writing sites like Wattpad to get feedback. Entering writing contests and submitting to teen literary magazines also gives teens goals to work towards.
Cooking/Baking
For teens who like working creatively with food, cooking, and baking can become a lifelong hobby. Teens can learn to cook full meals, bake impressive desserts, or experiment with new ingredients and cultural recipes.
The hands-on, visual and tasty results tap into a teen’s creativity. Teens can grow their skills through cookbooks, online videos, taking classes and simply practising in the kitchen. Teens can also get creative with food presentations, and photos, and start a recipe blog.
There are ample creative hobby opportunities appropriate for teens to explore. Trying new creative outlets allows teens to expand their interests, meet others, and gain valuable life skills in the process.
