It’s Justice for my tween this fall

Is it weird that I didn’t think of Miss Q as a tween until Justice asked if she’d fit into its clothes?

I reserved the word “tween” for 10, 11 and 12 year olds. But apparently I’m wrong. (It happens.)

It had never occurred to me to even step foot into this store because I didn’t think they’d carry Miss Q’s size. Wrong again. Clothes start at a girl’s size 6 officially, though we did find a couple of pieces in 5s, and carry through to plus sizes like 18 and 20!

Miss Q loved the energy in the store and she wasn’t alone; it was slammed with tweens in every direction! But service was spot on and the checkout was painless.

Everything your tween needs — literally from head to toe — is available here. Socks and underwear, shoes, accessories and even PJs are stocked. And WELL stocked, I might add. So if you don’t see your size on the floor, just ask a sales associate to check the back. Most of the time, we were in luck. And when we weren’t, there were a dozen other styles to choose from.

Before I show you what we bought, I want to point out a three things that I loved about our Justice shopping experience:

• These are clothes that give Miss Q the ability to express her individual style — and even at five years old, trust me…she very much has one
• There were items like sleepover jammies on which her friends could write with the accompanying fabric marker (something that will help her remember those important “first” moments)
• The phrases on tops and accessories celebrate girl power; it’s about being independent, strong and fearless and these are powerful messages we should be instilling in our daughters

Now let’s get on with the show!

You’ll see that we chose several pieces that could be mixed and matched and go from late summer through to fall — always a great way to save a few bucks.

Starting with the basics, we nabbed a pile of underwear because it was buy four, get three free. And I love a deal. We were shopping that week for gym clothes and a gymnastics leotard and I had no idea until we walked through the door that Justice would carry both — and the T-shirt reads “Strong is the new pretty,” which is awesome. Miss Q didn’t need PJs at all but fell in love with this nightshirt that came with a marker to personalize it with her friends down the road.

Remember when we started school wearing actual fall clothes? Yeah, not so much anymore. So we snapped up a bunch of fab summer-friendly items — my particular fave being the blue T on the far right, which reads “Llamazing” below two neon llamas. Cute. Oh, and those fox socks? LOVE.

Speaking of socks, they were buy two pairs and get the third free, so we did that. Because deal. Besides, who can resist poo emoji socks? And we couldn’t pass up these adorable necklaces. That little Eiffel Tower one? Less than $3 (full price!).

Carrying us into fall and winter, we found a ton of transitional pieces at Justice. Layering a T over a long-sleeved shirt is a great way to extend its wear (especially in unpredictable Canadian autumn weather). Adding sleeveless sweater wraps or light jackets is also perfect for that in-between October weather we tend to get now, when Mother Nature can’t decide if it’s fall or winter. Same goes for pairing tights with shorts. Justice’s jeans fit Miss Q beautifully, but you should know that they don’t have adjustable elastic waistbands like you may be used to from other retailers.

I appreciate details. And Justice didn’t disappoint. Many of the shirts had wonderful criss-cross, lace-up or sequined backs.

After trying on a mountain of clothes at our local Justice store, I can tell you that you do need to try things on because we found sizes inconsistent across the board. While my kid was swimming in a pair of size 5 shorts, size 6 jeans were snug and size 7 leggings fit just right. Go figure.

The good news is that Justice’s return policy is among the most generous of any store in which we’ve shopped anywhere — with 90 full days to return any unworn item for your full money back. Tags don’t even need to be attached (though you do need to bring the tags and receipt with you).

I can assure you…we’ll be back.

DISCLAIMER: Some (but certainly not all!) of the above clothes were provided by Justice so I could write this post. The opinions, styling, photography and child are all mine. And so are all the boots and shoes.