Xhilaration Love Tote Bag Review

Perfect for Middle School Girls

I'm not quite sure how schoolwork has evolved the way it has. The entire time I went to school, we never carried our books in a book bag, tote bag, or backpack. We carried whatever we needed in our arms. If we had a few textbooks, it could be a little tedious, but we carried them. Somehow, though, schoolwork has evolved, and kids need backpacks or bags to carry all their work back and forth to school. And if you've ever picked up the backpack of someone in middle school or high school, you realize how much work they do have to tote back and forth. As those things weigh a good twenty to forty pounds.

For grade schoolers, backpacks are the preferred bag, as it's easy for them to carry, even if it starts to get a little heavy for them. But once they get a little older, they start looking for alternative ways to carry their work. The "in" thing now for girls seems to be carrying your items in a tote bag. It's not convenient, but middle school girls could care less about function. They want "cute." And with the Xhilaration Love Tote, that's what they get.

I bought this particular bag for my daughter for her 8th grade school year. She no longer wanted to carry a backpack and wanted to have a bag like all the other girls. We perused the tote bags in the school supplies aisle, but they all looked rather baby-ish. We moved on to the handbags section of Target, and that's when we found this bag. You can't deny it's cuteness.

It's so cute, you don't want to get it dirty, but that's okay, because it's washable. It has a cotton lining, tie closure, and an interior zip pocket. The drawback is that it's only 12" x 15" x 3.38". It carries everything that needs to be carried, but barely. Often, my daughter is carrying her lunch outside of the bag, and there, too, we've gone from lunch box to plastic grocery bag. We couldn't find a cute enough lunch box, and apparently the grocery bag is less dorky than the not cute enough lunch boxes. The biggest drawback is that when the tote bag gets heavy, like most, it's uncomfortable to carry, much more so than a backpack that distributes the weight much better. However, teenage girls don't care about that.

Girls want cute. All in all, this Love bag makes a good choice. It has the cute factor all wrapped up, covering up what it lacks in function, and at a price under $20.00, you can afford to switch to something else if she decides cute isn't working for her.