TEENS OF MEANS HIGH SCHOOL KIDS HOLIDAY-SHOP WITH HEFTY WALLETS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Lernik Grikorian, a 15-year-old Glendale resident, went on one of her final holiday shopping forays Monday relatively unconcerned about a cash-flow problem. She plans to spend up to $500 on gifts this year, up from $200 last Christmas.

``It adds up,'' she said, clutching an armful of bags in the Glendale Galleria. ``I get (the money) from my mom. If I want to buy for my parents or friends, the money comes from my savings, but for my family, my mom pays for it.''

She's got lots of company.

Most teenagers aren't old enough to vote, but they wield billions of dollars in economic clout. Teen shoppers have become a crucial part of the holiday shopping season, contributing in greater numbers to the mammoth retail industry. A recent poll by Junior Achievement, a kids business advocacy group, found that teens will spend an average of $125 on gifts this year, up from around $100 in 2002.

Altogether, this group will spend an estimated $173 billion in 2003, according to Teenage Research Unlimited, a Chicago-based research company.

This week, when they've been released from classrooms and into the malls, they're out spending in force.

``The kids are the ones with the power,'' said Tonie Moses, Junior Achievement's director of youth affairs for Southern California. ``Parents have to abide by what they want. When I was growing up, I got two Barbie dolls and that was it.''

Not anymore, however. Now teens like Grikorian have no trouble asking their parents for hefty sums of cash to spend on themselves, friends and family members.

According to Teenage Research, most of the money will go for apparel items, but the high school-age spenders have become increasingly interested in bigger-ticket electronics items.

``It really surprises people how much they spend,'' said Michael Wood, a vice president with Teenage Research. ``On average, they spend $100 a week at any time in the year. The parents are the No. 1 source of income, though some have part-time jobs or do odd jobs.''

Raul Pool, a sales associate at Boarders Sports, a skate shop located in the Galleria's teen-theme area known as The Zone, sees firsthand how quick teens are to lay down their cash. The 16-year-old rarely sees an adult in the shop, where he got a job last month to facilitate his own spending habits.

``I spend a lot of money,'' the 11th-grader admitted. ``And now that I have money, I found that I have a necessity for more expensive things. Before, I'd have been like, a hundred bucks for a watch? Heck no! But now, it's no problem.''

While his job affords him the ability to spend with ease, not all can dispense with their dollars so freely. Andy Ramirez and Bryan Mendoza of Panorama City had saved all year, and received a bit of help from their parents, to afford to be generous during the holidays. They caught a ride with Ramirez's mom to the mall, where they planned to spend $100 apiece to cross everyone off their lists. They'd already taken care of their parents, and were reveling after finding inexpensive stuffed animals at The Disney Store.

``Family and friends get the real gifts,'' said Ramirez, a 14-year-old ninth-grader at Birmingham High School. ``The ones we forgot about get the cheap stuff.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) At left, 15-year-old Lernik Grikorian looks over some of her purchases as she hits the Glendale Galleria with her older sister, Nora, 21. At right, Andy Ramirez, 14, of Panorama City talks about Christmas shopping at the Glendale mall.

(3) Boarders Sports clerk Raul Pool, 16, says the money from his part-time job has amped up his spending habits.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer