Quick answer: You have to be 18 to open your own Etsy shop. Kids under 13 can't use Etsy at all, and teens 13 to 17 can only sell through an account a parent or guardian owns, in the parent's name. Etsy holds the parent responsible for everything in the shop.
| Age | Can they sell on Etsy? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Under 13 | No | Etsy's policy bars children under 13 from the platform entirely, with or without a parent. |
| 13 to 17 | Only through a parent | The shop, the login and the payment details all belong to the parent or legal guardian. |
| 18 and up | Yes | They can open and run their own shop. |
Your kid makes something great (friendship bracelets, cookies, stickers, slime) and someone finally says the magic words: "You should sell these!" The first place most families think of is Etsy. Here's what the rules actually allow, what the usual workaround costs your kid, and the alternatives if you want them to run a store that's really theirs.
What Etsy's minors policy says
Etsy's policy on minors is unambiguous:
- Children under 13 may not use Etsy at all. Not as a seller, not with supervision, not on a parent's lap. The platform is simply not available to them.
- Teens 13 to 17 can't have their own account either. A minor may only sell with the permission and direct supervision of a parent or legal guardian who owns the account. The account is in your name, the billing and Etsy Payments details are yours, the shop's About section has to name both of you, and Etsy holds you responsible for everything on it.
That second rule matters more than most families realize, because of what it does to the kid's experience.
The workaround, and what it quietly costs
Plenty of families do the workaround: a parent opens the shop, lists the child's products, and handles the orders. It works, in the sense that things get sold. But look at it from the kid's side:
The kid is a ghost in their own business. No login. No dashboard. No store of their own to check in the morning. They can't see their orders come in, can't watch their own numbers, can't press the button that makes their store real. The parent does all of that, which means the parent slowly becomes the business, and the kid becomes the supplier.
The learning is exactly what gets lost. The pride of "this is mine," the habit of checking your shop, the arithmetic of what things cost versus what they sell for: those live in the doing, not in watching a grown-up do it.
There's also the practical layer: Etsy is a grown-up marketplace. Your child's bracelet listing sits alongside millions of adult sellers, the fees are real (a listing fee plus a transaction percentage on every sale), and nothing about the platform is designed with children's safety or privacy in mind, because children aren't supposed to be there.
Why the rule exists (and why it's reasonable)
This isn't Etsy being difficult. A U.S. federal law called COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) sets strict rules for any online service that collects personal information from children under 13: verified parental consent, limits on data, real obligations. Most platforms respond the same way Etsy, eBay and Facebook Marketplace do: they ban young kids rather than build for them. It's the cheapest form of compliance.
The result is a strange gap: we tell kids entrepreneurship is wonderful, hand them books about it, send them to business fairs. And then every real venue for actually running a store online turns them away at the door.
The alternatives, honestly compared
A parent-run Etsy shop. Fine if your goal is just to sell the inventory. Wrong tool if your goal is for the kid to learn by running something.
Shopify. A real store builder, but the account holder must be an adult, the basic plan runs about $39 a month before payment fees, and you'd be assembling the training wheels (approvals, safety, kid-friendly design) yourself.
Local business fairs and markets. Genuinely great. Kids' business fairs and lemonade-day events give kids real face-to-face selling experience. Their limit is that they happen a few times a year. A business that exists one Saturday per season is a lovely memory; it isn't a habit.
A platform built for exactly this. This is why we built Lemonade Stand. It's the place a kid under 13 can have an online store that is actually theirs: their own login, their own dashboard, their own orders. It's legal because the whole platform is built around COPPA from the ground up. The parent approves every product, every order and every public word before it goes live, and all customer communication happens parent to parent. Kids sell things they make, things they've outgrown, or services they do like car washes, gift wrapping and pet care, with a parent present. Setup takes a parent about two minutes, and the first month is free.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need to be 18 to sell on Etsy?
Yes. You must be 18 or older to open and run your own Etsy shop. Anyone younger can only sell through a shop that a parent or legal guardian owns and operates.
Can you open an Etsy shop under 18?
No, not in your own name. A 13 to 17 year old can sell through a parent's or guardian's shop, but the account, the login and the payment details belong to the adult, and Etsy holds the adult responsible for the shop.
Can a 13 year old sell on Etsy with a parent?
Only indirectly. The parent opens the shop in their own name and lists the teen's products. The teen has no account, no login and no dashboard of their own. Many families do this, but the kid ends up as the supplier rather than the shopkeeper.
Can kids under 13 sell on Etsy?
No. Etsy's minors policy bars children under 13 from using the platform at all, including with a parent's supervision. This comes from COPPA, the U.S. law that sets strict rules for online services collecting information from children under 13.
What is Etsy's minors policy in plain English?
Under 13: not allowed on Etsy. 13 to 17: allowed to sell only through a parent's or guardian's account, which the adult owns and is responsible for. 18 and up: can run their own shop.
What can kids do instead of Etsy?
Local kids' business fairs and markets are a good start for face-to-face selling. For an online store a kid can actually run, Lemonade Stand gives kids under 13 their own store, with their own login and dashboard, while a parent approves every product and order before it goes live.
Is there an Etsy alternative for kids?
Yes. Lemonade Stand is built for kids under 13 and their parents: the kid names the store, lists what they make or have outgrown and sets the prices; the parent approves everything and receives all customer messages. The first month is free.
The bottom line
If your child is under 13, Etsy isn't an option, and the parent-account workaround for teens turns the kid into a supplier rather than a founder. Before you build the workaround, it's worth asking what you actually want out of this: products sold, or a kid who learns what it feels like to run something of their own.
If it's the second one, that's the thing we made.
Marilyn is the founder of Lemonade Stand and a mom of young shopkeepers. Etsy's policy and the prices referenced were checked in October 2026; platform policies change, so always confirm current terms.