5 Reasons Your Teenager Will Love This Tech

I have a middle school aged teenager who has had her own phone for a couple of years now.  She is very tech savvy, and often gives me tips on apps or settings I may enjoy.  So it was fun to be the hip mom who actually introduced HER to a cool piece of tech lately:  the Fitbit Versa from Verizon.

She was blown away, and is now a little obsessed with this smart watch.  I love watching her play with and discover features for gear reviews like this, because she’s curious and smart and typically discovers capabilities that I wouldn’t.  She gave the Fitbit Versa a two week trial for me, and we are firmly convinced any teenage will love this tech.  Here’s 5 reasons why.

Changing Face

Maybe this feature will appeal more to girls than guys, but the first thing she loved was playing with the options for a watch face display.  You can purchase additional choices, but she easily found one from among the free stock images that she really liked.

This is nothing new in the smart watch world, but if your teen is new to a device like the Fitbit Versa (as mine was) they will likely get a kick out of the “changing face” option.

“Relax” Tool

I have a worrier on my hands, bless her heart. She’s always been a super responsible girl.  Part of the price she pays is anxiety.  I try to give her occasional tips, and she copes just fine.

But it was interesting to me how excited she got when she discovered the “relax” feature on the Fitbit Versa.  She described this as a 2 minute mini-session, during which (I believe) it takes your heart rate.  It walks the user through some deep breathing exercises, with calming graphics.  At the end of 2 minutes, you get feedback on whether you are “calmer”.  If not, she tries again.  It’s cute to see how proud of herself she is, if after three attempts she finally achieves “high alignment”.

All kidding aside, she was really excited to have access to a calming tool like this, for when she’s feeling stressed throughout her day at school.  It’s subtle, and something she can easily do, at any time, without anyone even noticing.  Pretty slick.

Exercise Video Clips

With our busy lives, we are always looking for ways to stay active.  You can watch exercise videos on the Fitbit Versa… even short ones like 3 or 5 minutes long.  My daughter loves this, and will fire them up occasionally throughout the day when she’s at home, and do a mini-workout.

Anything to add more movement to your day is a fabulous thing!  The novelty of it appears to be inspiring to a teenager, and I’ve been glad to see her enjoying these.

Tracking Steps

A step tracker to keep track of your activity for the day can be really useful.  I’ve watched during this past two weeks, and observed my daughter literally getting off the couch to walk the dogs… because she realized she wanted to reach her step goal for the day, and she wasn’t there yet.

*Mind blown.*

I’m ready to buy her a Fitbit Versa for this reason alone!  (We are just testing this one, but she’s pretty hooked.)  I know there are many forms of step trackers.  But it’s a terrific bonus having it wrapped in a tech device like this, which offers you so much additional functionality.

Setting Goals

Your teen can highly customize just about everything on the Fitbit Versa, making it even more applicable to their interests and goals.  Setting personal, realistic goals on the Versa has been very motivational to my daughter.  It then gives her ideas, feedback on progress, and adapted workouts from Fitbit Coach.

She’s added several apps to it (I have no idea how this is done… but she assures me it was easy.  Ask your teenager, they’ll be able to figure it out!).  She can check the weather, play music, or receive text messages.  It’s pretty much Teenager Heaven.

Verizon Fitbit Versa

After trying out this Verizon Fitbit Versa, and seeing how much my teen appreciated it’s capabilities – I’m convinced it’s the perfect tech for a teenager gift.  They can also play music, receive notifications, and have quick reply options for calls, events, and texts.  Battery life of the device we used seemed to last around 3 days, with moderate-to-heavy daily use.

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This article was written as part of a paid partnership with Verizon.  All opinions are my own.