Kids today are bombarded by images, cartoon characters, and brands at school, on television, and while shopping. Names appear on everything from toys and pasta to shoes and backpacks. When entering your optical dispensary to choose a pair of glasses--often reluctantly--kids find comfort in names they recognize. Accordingly, more and more suppliers are offering eyewear that feature the brands or characters that attract kids.

THE AGE GAME
"Young kids are drawn to names they recognize, like Disney, Looney Tunes, and Fisher Price," says pediatric optician Hayse Penn of Dr. Christina Ohnsman's pediatric practice in Wyomissing, Pa. "Kids up to age seven or eight love frames that feature characters in fun colors, like pinks, purples, and other pastel colors."

Kids entering their pre-teen years are also drawn to names they're familiar with. But this age group, generally too "cool" and "grown-up" to wear frames that feature characters, often opt for the same brands they choose for their clothes, shoes, and accessories.

"Older kids--10 to 14-years-old--are very name conscious," says Diane Mastroianni of Fashion Optical, a two-location dispensary in Palmer, Mass. "They demand names like Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess?, and Esprit."

This age group of kids, according to most dispensers, are very savvy consumers and very fashion conscious. "They are individuals," according to John Gruen, of Gruen Optika in Manhattan. "They are less self-conscious about wearing eyewear then ever before. They're actually happy to make a personal statement with their eyewear," he says, adding that this emphasis on personal style means the end of the days when kids choose eyewear looks to emulate their parents.

HOT, HOT, HOT
To make a statement, says Gruen, kids want lots of color. Most dispensers agree, citing hot colors such as pink, yellow, blue, and purple. Many say that colors in antique or matte finishes allow kids to choose color in muted tones, like mauve, pewter, silver, and midnight blue.

Neal Gerstein of Kids' Specs Plus in White Plains, N.Y. says that neutral tones are still big with pre-teens. "Gold, tortoise, bronze, demi-amber, gunmetal, and black sell best with older kids," he says.

The biggest change in eyewear trends, according to Gerstein, is shape. "The rage for kids is no longer the preppy round," he says. "Geometrics, ovals, and rectangles sell best." The reason? Fashion does play a role in this new trend, but Gerstein also emphasizes that many prescriptions are difficult to fit in small, round frames and become even more difficult with certain childhood vision problems, like amblyopia. Most dispensers agree that round is out. Says Penn, "Round frames cover too much of their small faces."

Multiple pairs, a growing trend among adults, is more the exception than the rule with kids. "We don't encourage multiple pairs for kids because they grow out of them so rapidly," says Gruen. "If parents insist, I encourage them to come back after their child has had time to get used to the glasses." 

THAT'S ALL, FOLKS
On the subject of parents, most dispensers report that parents stay out of the buying process. Kids generally make the buying decision, parents just bring their wallets. " I sell to the kids. It makes them feel important and helps ease their insecurity about wearing glasses," says Gerstein. After all, he adds, "If the kids don't like 'em, they won't wear 'em." EB