25 easy World Book Day costume ideas for teens

Looking for a glam World Book Day costume for a stylish teen? This Miss Spider outfit is a great look!

Start with a black and white dress and a chic bob or beret.

For the spidery legs just stuff three pairs of tights – this'll make 6 extra legs, then attach them to the dress. These instructions for making animal tails will help with the legs.

Use face paint to add edgy black lips and don't forget to perfect those smokey eyes!

For fashion-conscious teen boys, this hairdo won't cramp their style!

If your teen boy (or girl) is going for this Tin Tin look on World Book Day, they'll need to use plenty of hair gel.

Dig out an aquamarine jumper, white shirt, and don't forget to remind them to tuck their red trousers into some white socks. Bonus points for a white toy dog.

Image thanks to @lookbookdotnu on Pinterest.

If you can get hold of a black and white wig from your local fancy dress shop, this awesome Cruella de Vil look comes together easily, and is perfect for teens.

All they'll need is a slick outfit that merges Cruella's signature style-points – Black and white fur, animal print, red accessories and lips, and maybe a stuffed toy Dalmatian peering out of an open handbag to finish the costume off.

Tip: If you can't get hold of a wig, but your teen has fair hair, they can spray half of it with black hairspray – or if they have dark hair, just spray half with white hairspray.

We know how teens LOVE to know it all! So this dictionary costume should be right up their street.

It's such a simple – not to mention CLEVER – idea for a World Book Day costume, and super easy to re-create. It'll suit a teen boy or girl too!

We found this on Pinterest, and the girl has simply written words from the dictionary all over a plain white T-shirt, with the word 'Dictionary' highlighted in red.

If your teen is stuck for ideas, and they have an old white top, tell them to give this one a go!

We love how customisable this Queen of Hearts look is! There are so many Queen of Hearts character looks to take inspiration from online, your teen is sure to go for this idea!

For this version, they'll need face-paint to draw a playing card across their eye – making it an easy-to-recreate but unmistakeable nod to the Queen of Hearts. Heart-shaped lips are a nice touch too.

For their main costume they can attach playing cards to a top to make an elizabethan-style collar. Just make sure all the cards are heart cards!

This cool look is perfect for teen boys who are after a quirky costume to celebrate World Book Day.

Get the Willy Wonka look easily with a top hat, leather gloves, a long coat or smart blazer from dad's wardrobe or a charity shop, and a walking stick.

Complete the costume with a quirky bow tie and a pair of goggles for these modern Willy Wonka character vibes! If you can get hold of a short brown bob wig you'll hit the nail on the head.

A popular costume for teens this World Book Day will be our hero Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

To get the look they'll just need to tie their hair into a sideways plait and make a DIY bow and arrow, Katniss Everdeen's signature weapon ...

Find out on Pinterest how to make Katniss Everdeen's signature weapon

If your teen is a fan of Marvel comics they'll love celebrating World Book Day as Spider-Man.

We love this DIY homemade Spider-Man costume we found on Pinterest – proving that you don't have to spend loads of money at the fancy dress shop.

It's about colour choice and the details!

Fans of Roald Dahl will love dressing up as the Grand High Witch for World Book Day.

It's a super cool costume, perfect for teens, and there are so many different ways they can get the look.

We think this hand-drawn mask is hilarious. If they want to take their costume to the next level, we've seen people pulling nude stockings over their heads for the 'bald witch' look – and don't forget those all important gloves!

Find more Roald Dahl character costume ideas

If your teen boy is stuck for ideas but has a dark-coloured hoodie (we bet they do), they can easily recreate this 'Big Bad Wolf' look we found on Pinterest. It's also a great costume for girls who want to be the baddie instead of the damsel in distress.

Mask and hoodie combos are perfect for super simple last-minute costumes, especially for days like World Book Day.

Your teen can buy or make a wolf mask with little effort, and go as a wolf from any fairy tale - there are many to choose from!

For the opportunity to dress up in a cute green elfin dress, we're sure Tinker Bell will be a hit with teen girls for World Book Day.

It's such an easy look to put together too – all they will need is a short green dress or night slip, a pair of wings and some pom poms to stick on their slippers or flats.

Tip: If they're not blonde and don't have a wig that works, they can just say they're Tink's sister! If people don't believe them, they can just get weaker and weaker until their friends start clapping – because fairies literally start to drop dead when you don't believe them!

Image thanks to @zaritapurple on Pinterest.

It doesn't matter if you have a teen boy or girl, this is a great unisex costume for World Book Day that's super cool and a little bit retro. We're sure they'll love it.

All they'll need is a red and white striped top and blue jeans or skirt, plus some oversized specs, and a beanie. A magnifying glass will complete the look.

They'll look so good you won't be asking 'where's Wally?' – You'll be asking 'where's my kid gone?!'

Here's proof that a Paddington bear costume would be super cute for your teenager this World Book Day!

We found this adorable example on Pinterest and it's really easy to recreate.

All they'll need is a cute red hat, a blue dress, red wellies, a brown suitcase and a stuffed Paddington Bear toy (just to make it clear!)

Harry Potter isn't just for kids – it's an easy look for your teen too!

It's so easy they really only need their school uniform, a pair of 'Harry Potter' glasses and a wand.

Don't forget the classic red-and-gold Gryffindor details!

We love how cool this example we found on Pinterest looks!

For older teen girls who are looking for costume ideas that allow them to glam-up, we found this Little Mermaid costume idea on Pinterest

This costume is all about the colours, with shimmery green representing the mermaid's tail and the purple top representing her shell bikini top.

Your teen can dress this look up or down depending on their own personal vibe. A red wig or temporary hair dye finishes the look perfectly if they're going for the more recognisable Disney look over Hans Christian Anderson.

Harry Potter characters make fun costumes for a group of friends like in this example we found on Pinterest.

If your teen girl is stuck for ideas, she might fancy dressing up as a teen Hermoine – put the look together easily with a school uniform and wand. Bonus points for the cape!

Or go for any other Harry Potter character you like! Add red and gold details if your teen sees themselves as a Gryffindor, blue and bronze for Ravenclaw, yellow and black for Hufflepuff, or green and silver for would-be Slytherins.

Teens could even dress up as one of the teachers; a witch's hat is a great starting point for McGonagall, while a black cape is basically all you need for Snape.

For teens who like to think outside of the box, they might enjoy the challenge of putting this costume together for Peter Pan's escaped shadow that we found on Pinterest.

It looks like they've been spray-painted black, but they're actually wearing a black morphsuit (you can get them on Amazon).

The iconic look of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz is an easy costume for teens to put together for World Book Day.

They'll need:

• A blue checked dress
• white blouse
• A wicker basket
• Red shoes

Just pull hair into two braids and they'll be good to go follow that yellow brick road!

if it's good enough for this teacher we stumbled across on Pinterest we're sure your teen will love this look for World Book Day too!

All they'll need to create this Oompa Loompa costume are white overalls and a chocolatey brown top, orange face paint and either a green wig or green temporary hair dye.

Check out this cool spider costume for teens and tweens we found on Pinterest.

We think it'd be great for a Charlotte's Web costume for World Book Day!

It's creative enough to impress their mates, and looks good too!

Those ears!

A BFG costume is an easy win for your teen if they're struggling for ideas – because everyone loves Roald Dahl!

There are loads of tutorials online on how to make the iconic big ears for the costume – we particularly like the ones that use paper plates for the ears and attach them to the sides of a headband.

So simple!

Everybody knows this storybook character with her iconic red hooded-cloak – and it's a really easy costume for your teen to put together if they have plenty of red in their wardrobe!

Any red or black dress/top and skirt paired with a hooded red coat or shawl will work. Check out how to make a no-sew cape

Add a basket for accessories. We also love how the girl in this picture we found on Pinterest has painted red claw marks on her face as a nod towards the big bad wolf!

Your teen could use face paint or lipstick to do something similar!

We spotted this Shakespeare costume on Pinterest and thought it'd be perfect for your cultured teen!

They can get the look with a stick-on moustache, a DIY elizabethan collar, a feather quill and scroll of paper for writing their masterpieces!

If you or your teen has anything tweedy in the wardrobe they'll be able to pull together a pretty convincing Sherlock Holmes look for World Book Day.

If you don't have a tweed coat a simple beige trench coat will work just as well.

Get hold of some tweedy fabric and they can easily transform a baseball cap into a fold-up Deerstalker hat with some scissors and fabric glue.

Finish the look off with a magnifying glass or old-fashioned pipe as an extra clue to their identity!

This is a fun costume for Roald Dahl fans, and you don't need to be a teacher, like in this pic we found on Pinterest, to pull it off!

Any skirt suit or uniform combined with a belt will form the base of this look. For skinny teens some extra padding will help, so stuff a bra for a fuller chest.

Pull hair up into a mean-looking bun, don't forget that mono-brow, and perfect a menacing posture by keeping those legs apart!