Food Eats Up Largest Portion of Teen Spending

Food eats up the largest portion of teen spending, consuming nearly a quarter of all their sales at 24%.

Among the 6,000 teens with an average age of 16.4 who took part in the 35th Semi-Annual Taking Stock With Teens Survey produced by Piper Jaffray, the most popular restaurant choices for both average-income and upper-income teens were Chick-fil-A and Starbucks.

"Quite honestly, I don't know how many teens know how to cook,” teen Mariah Beckius told KELO-TV. “I'm not that good at cooking. I can do the bare minimum.”

In addition to forking over money on food, female teenagers are now spending a record high $368 per year on skincare, while male teen spending on video games reached a new peak at 13%.

“The biggest kind of craze amongst teenagers right now is the game Fortnite,” said teenager Michael Schoettmer. “It’s sweeping the nation really.”

Another large takeaway from the survey is that teens spend nearly one-fifth of their time online shopping at 19%, which is up 2% from the previous survey, with teens looking for comfortable and casual clothing. Athletic apparel and streetwear, a hip-hop fashion that originates from the California surf and skate culture, dominate the clothing market.

Meanwhile, teen consumption of social media is not where parents may expect it. While older generations have fallen in love with Facebook, teens ranked it as just their fourth social media platform of choice. Snapchat easily outdistanced itself as the most popular at 45%, followed by Instagram at 26%, and Twitter at 9%.