LDS Girls Camp Shirt Ideas: Create a Shirt Your Young Women Will Actually Want to Wear

Girls Camp is one of those Church experiences that can create memories for years.

The hikes, late-night conversations, testimony meetings, campfires, service projects, and friendships all become part of the experience. And for many groups, a Girls Camp shirt becomes one of the things the young women take home and keep long after camp is over.

The challenge is creating a shirt that the young women actually want to wear.

If you're a stake Young Women presidency member, stake youth council member, or another leader responsible for organizing Girls Camp shirts, you probably already have enough on your plate. You don't need another project where you spend weeks trying to come up with a design that 40, 80, or 150 young women will agree on.

That's where a good design process can make all the difference.

Start With the Girls

The adults may be organizing Girls Camp, but the young women should have a voice in what they wear.

That's one of the reasons we approach custom LDS group shirts differently at WeakThings.

Instead of simply handing a leader a finished design and asking everyone to approve it, we can involve the youth in the creative process.

A leader can gather ideas from the youth council or other youth involved in planning camp, give us the basic concept, and then share the design with the group for feedback.

They can look at it.

They can suggest changes.

They can decide what feels right.

And we can keep working on the design until the group is happy with it.

The result isn't just a shirt the adults selected.

It's a shirt the young women helped create.

What Should Your Girls Camp Shirt Say?

You don't have to start with a finished design.

In fact, you don't even need to know exactly what you want.

Start with an idea.

Maybe your Girls Camp has a scripture theme.

Maybe you have a phrase that the young women came up with.

Maybe there's a particular message you want the girls to remember.

Maybe you want something funny.

Maybe you want something that feels like an outdoor adventure shirt.

Or maybe you want something simple enough that the girls will still wear it years from now.

All of those are good starting points.

Here are some questions we can use to turn that idea into a design.

The Girls Camp Shirt Questionnaire

1. What's the event?

Girls Camp, stake Girls Camp, ward camp, Young Women camp, or another youth experience.

2. What's the theme?

Give us the scripture, phrase, youth theme, song, camp motto, or basic idea.

3. What do you want the shirt to feel like?

Think about words such as:

• Outdoor

• Vintage

• Retro

• Bold

• Simple

• Feminine

• Sporty

• Collegiate

• Modern

• Funny

• Hand-drawn

• Streetwear

There isn't a wrong answer.

4. What should appear on the shirt?

This could include:

• Camp name

• Stake or ward name

• Scripture

• Date

• Location

• Mountains

• Trees

• Campfire

• Stars

• A meaningful symbol

• A phrase created by the youth

Or nothing more than a great piece of artwork and a few words.

5. What colors do you want?

Tell us the colors your group loves—or the colors you definitely don't want.

6. What should we avoid?

This question can be just as useful as knowing what you want.

7. What shirts do you like?

If you've seen a WeakThings design you like, show it to us. It doesn't have to become the final design. It can simply give us an idea of the style you're after.

Use Existing Designs as Inspiration

Sometimes the easiest way to explain what you want is to point to something you already like.

For example, the Rejoice in Christ collection includes a variety of approaches to the same message.

A bright, playful design like Smiley Rejoice in Christ can give a completely different feeling than White Script Rejoice in Christ.

A Brush Stroke Rejoice in Christ treatment can feel more artistic and energetic.

A Scripture Rejoice in the Lord design can put the emphasis on the message.

And Sunrise Rejoice in Christ can create a completely different outdoor, hopeful feeling.

Those aren't necessarily Girls Camp designs—and they don't have to be.

They're examples of different visual directions.

You might see one and say:

"We love the style, but we want our own Girls Camp concept."

Perfect.

That's exactly what inspiration is for.

What If You Want Something Completely Original?

That's where custom design gets fun.

WeakThings can start with a blank page.

You give us the concept, and we build the artwork around it.

Maybe the young women want a mountain range with a scripture.

Maybe they want something that looks like an old national park souvenir shirt.

Maybe they want something completely unexpected.

Maybe the theme is serious and meaningful.

Maybe the youth want something funny that only your stake will understand.

Tell us what you're thinking.

We'll turn the idea into a shirt design.

Let the Youth Help Make the Decisions

This is one of the biggest advantages of having a custom design process.

Imagine you're the stake leader coordinating shirts for Girls Camp.

Instead of trying to guess what the youth will like, you can give them something concrete to react to.

You send them the design.

They look at it.

They say:

"We love this."

Or:

"Can we change the font?"

Or:

"Could we make the mountains bigger?"

Or:

"Can we use a different color?"

Or:

"What if we added this phrase?"

Those comments give us something useful to work with.

The youth get a voice.

The leader doesn't have to become a graphic designer.

And the final shirt feels like it belongs to the group.

Ideas for Girls Camp Shirts

If you're starting from scratch, here are a few directions that could work:

Scripture + Outdoor Artwork

Pair a meaningful scripture with mountains, trees, a sunrise, stars, a trail, or another outdoor element.

Vintage Camp Shirt

Think old-school summer camp, national park, or vintage outdoor apparel.

Simple and Minimal

A small graphic, clean typography, and a design the young women could continue wearing after camp.

Bold and Modern

Large typography, interesting lettering, unexpected layouts, and a design that feels more like something you'd find in a clothing store than a traditional Church activity shirt.

Inside Joke

If your youth group has a phrase everyone knows, turn it into the shirt.

Those can end up being the shirts people remember the most.

Rejoice in Christ

The current youth theme is another natural starting point for a Girls Camp design.

It doesn't have to mean putting the exact same artwork on every shirt.

The message can become the foundation for an entirely different creative concept.

A Shirt Can Become Part of the Experience

The best camp shirts aren't just souvenirs.

They're reminders.

Years later, a young woman may find the shirt in the back of her closet and remember the people she went to camp with, the hike everyone complained about, the late-night conversations, the testimony she heard, or the moment something important clicked for her.

That's why the design matters.

It should feel like their experience.

How Custom Group Orders Work

WeakThings is a Latter-day Saint apparel company. We make LDS apparel because we're members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ourselves.

Our goal isn't simply to print a logo on a shirt.

We want to help your group create something they'll actually be excited to wear.

Here's the basic process:

1. Tell us what you're thinking.

Complete the questionnaire and give us the theme, ideas, colors, and details.

2. We create the design.

We'll turn your concept into an actual shirt design.

3. Let the youth see it.

Share the design with your youth council or planning group.

4. Request changes.

Want a different font? Different colors? Different artwork? Something added or removed?

Tell us.

5. Approve the final design.

Once everyone is happy, we'll get the order ready.

6. Order your shirts.

Start a custom group order with WeakThings. Group orders have a 12-shirt minimum, making the process practical for wards, stakes, and youth groups of many sizes.

Your Girls Camp Doesn't Need to Look Like Everyone Else's

There are plenty of places to buy generic camp shirts.

That's not really what we're trying to do.

Your stake isn't exactly like another stake.

Your young women aren't exactly like another group.

Your camp has its own personality, inside jokes, experiences, and memories.

Your shirt can reflect that.

Start with a phrase.

Start with a scripture.

Start with a color.

Start with a rough idea.

Or start with a WeakThings design you like and tell us what you'd change.

We'll take it from there.

Ready to Create Your Girls Camp Shirt?

Explore the WeakThings LDS apparel collection for inspiration, browse the Rejoice in Christ collection, or start a custom group order and let us build something specifically for your group.

12 shirts minimum. Custom designs. Youth input encouraged. And no graphic-design experience required.