My niece will be graduating from high school in a few weeks and one of the gifts I would like to give her is a nice backpack to carry her books in college. Any recommendations? I am looking for one that is sturdy and will stand up to the punishment a college freshman will give it. My niece is very fashion conscious so any help you can give me will be very appreciated.
My advice comes with a warning - backpacks are pretty much inherently unfashionable and many female college students will not use them. They'll use tote bags instead which are less practical, but cuter. Example... So it's possible that she may not even want a back pack.
However, this is what I use and I LOVE it... I got it my sophomore year of high school and I'm now finishing up my sophomore year of college. It has stood up really well and been very practical, as well as not being TOO unfashionable. The company's big thing is that you can customize the bags, and they have this adorable gift certificate... Which is just a $100 gift certifacte but in cuter packaging. You could also just buy her a bag from the site. http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/retail/catalog.htm