..."It IS my birthday weekend after all."  My just-turning-21-year-old daughter flashes me a beseeching smile as she holds up the July issue of Self Magazine at the supermarket checkout.

"You've had quite the unmistakable SELF since the moment you were born," I tell her as I toss the magazine next to the strawberry Twizzlers and red pepper hummus she's already picked out as birthday treats.

Later, we chat and eat moo hsu pork takeout in paper-thin pancakes as she flips through the pages of her colorful, ad-drenched, bikini-full chick magazine.

Just the two of us, with the whole evening stretched out before us and nowhere in particular we are expected to be.  When was the last time that happened?  She's back from 3 weeks of building greenhouses in an Andes village, and she's a little weary of all of the serious talk of service, NGO's, anti-hunger efforts, and the price of a greenhouse tomato in the Quito markets.  

So, on this lazy summer Saturday evening, the conversation turns to our old stand-by:  styles, emerging trends and generational profiles.  My daughter and I are both enthusiastic trend-spotters.  Both of us writers looking for ideas to grab hold of.  Both of us fascinated by the things that make one generation different from the next.  Or from the one that came before.  And of course we both simply love clothes!

It occurs to me throughout the evening that I am not only enjoying the discussion with her immensely--but also that I am mining treasures of marketing information.  So would you like to join me for a few minutes while I tell about the observations of a clear-eyed, style-conscious 21-year-old?  Some of it frivolous, some of it probably of limited use to an Internet Marketer, some of it (perhaps) worth digging through Commission Junction, Amazon, and Clickbank for.  But what the heck...draw up a chair and join me for a few minutes.

It's swimsuit season, and the kids and I are getting ready to leave for the beach in a week....

"Mom, I couldn't find Annie a bathing suit when I took her to the mall yesterday.  I wish there was a website that had bathing suits that were cool for 12- and 13-year-old girls without being like...2 triangles and a thong.  Like, even if it was just links to the decent stuff on Amazon. "

"This Self Magazine has the greatest stuff each month.  I mean, look at this swimsuit.  It's made to fit around your hips so that it doesn't pinch the flabby spots.  (What flabby spots? I am thinking.)  But it doesn't tell me where to find this swimsuit.  Pass over your Mac so I can track this suit down.  Someone ought to do a blog just telling where to find all the stuff they show in Self each month."

"Speaking of Mac's, for my birthday, I'd really really love the Mac external hard drive.  You can get them from Best Buy now.   I know it's more expensive than the other external hard drives at $250, but it does the work of keeping updated backups FOR YOU.  And it has wireless capability.  It's the best external hard drive ever.  Most of my friends use that one."

"Don't you love the Alpaca sweater I got in the marketplace at Quito?  Feel it!  Sooooooo soft.  I sure wish there were a way to get hand-knit Alpaca in this country without paying, like, 200 bucks." 

We go for a walk around the neighborhood.  She wants to rent a movie, so we figure we'll wend our way over to the Blockbuster store to see what they have in the way of BioPics or RomComs.  (We end up with something that falls into neither genre and which proves to be quite horrid.  But the walk and continued running of our mouths sure was nice.)

I'm going to stop here, because I'm not quite sure if this is boring to everyone but me.  If you want more 21-year-old trend/style/wish-list commentary, let me know.  I got more....