Liz Atwood talks tween fashion on this Tween Tuesday:

As the recession ebbs, retailers are gearing up to attract tween buyers. Madonna is developing her Material Girl line, which will be in Macy’s stores this August. J.C. Penney’s announcement of its new tween fashion line called Uproar sent the company’s stock price higher a couple weeks ago.

It’s really astounding that 8-to-14-year-old children have such buying power. They can’t drive. They can’t work. And, at least in the case of my younger son, calculating dollars and cents is still a challenge.

But studies show this population of 21 million is a retailing gold mine. They might not be able to drive to the mall, but tweens know how to nag. They wield about $43 billion a year in spending power, according to EPM Communications' Tween Spending & Influence report.

Actually, those numbers are probably conservative. I bet my sons influence my buying more than $2,000 worth of stuff a year. How about you? Any idea how much your tween prompts you to spend each year?

(Associated Press photo)