Smells Like Teen Spirit

...in the Teen Spa at Pinehurst Resort, that is.

If you're a golf aficionado, the village of Pinehurst in North Carolina might mean something to you. US Opens and US Senior Opens have been played there and in 2008 Pinehurst will host the US Men's Amateur Championship. This is very much a golfing town.

Your teen or tween girl might be bored to tears at the mere thought of golf (unless she's a Michelle Wie or Annika Sorenstam fan). But if your heart is set on a golf vacation, you might want to give the Pinehurst Resort a closer look, since it has a small but thoughtful menu of spa treatments for teens and tweens that girls especially will love to take advantage of.

Teens get to enjoy their own TeenSpa lounge, away from the annoying eyes (and mouths?) of parents. From there they can be whisked away to enjoy a massage, a Teen Facial, a Teen Makeup Lesson (which thankfully preaches moderation) or a Teen Tune-up, which is a session with a personal trainer (great for your young athlete). If your daughter will consent to being seen with you, there's a mother-daughter treatment package; if she prefers this year's BFFs, they can join in for the Friends Always and Forever package, great for birthdays, which includes spa manicure & pedicure, facial, and makeup application (and probably lots of eye-rolling and gossip).

Younger ones (6-12) can get pampered too, with a Twinkle Toes and Fancy Fingers mani/pedi treatment or a mini-facial. They can even be gently introduced to massage with a 20-minute treatment, during which a parent is present and your princess is in her bathing suit.

We like that this spa introduces our soon-to-be-divas to pampering at a moderate pace, and does so under the watchful eyes of parents: teens going for closed-door treatments such as massages must have parents in the room with them, and the under-12 group must be accompanied by parents for all treatments, massage and otherwise. In other words, no golfing while the kids do the spa thing, but we think it's a good call.

And that yawn you'll see at the end of the day? Probably a yawn of contentment. After all, it's their vacation too - and a little pampering never hurt anyone.