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Good nutrition is an essential component of raising a healthy, active teen. In addition to the vitamins and minerals that adults require, adolescents need specific micronutrients to bolster them through puberty, growth spurts, and the stress of the teenage years.
Best Multivitamins for Teens - Our Top Picks
- Best Multivitamin for Teen Boys: Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin - for Him
- Best Multivitamin for Teen Girls: Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin - for Her
- Best Gummy Multivitamin for Teens: Future Kind Kids Multivitamin Gummies
- Best Multivitamin for Teens for Growth: Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin
- Best Multivitamin for Active Teens: Transparent Labs Multivitamin
- Best Organic Multivitamin for Teens: Kaged Multivitamin
- Best Subscription Multivitamin for Teens: Transparent Labs Multivitamin
- Best Vegan Multivitamin for Teens: Future Kind Kids Multivitamin Gummies
- Best Budget Multivitamin for Teens: New Chapter Kids Multivitamin Gummies
- Best Gluten-Free Multivitamin for Teens: New Chapter Tiny Tabs Multivitamin
Without a doubt, the best way for teens to achieve optimal nutrition is to eat a well-balanced diet. However, today's teens are on the go with sports, friends, and school, all of which make it difficult to consistently get enough vitamins and nutrients from their food alone. As a result, many choose a multivitamin for teens to fill the nutritional gaps.
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The health and safety of ACTIVE's readers is of the utmost importance to us. To ensure your well-being when consuming dietary supplements, the ACTIVE.com editorial team prioritizes products that are independently tested by a third party. We've consulted with a team of nutritionists and dieticians to ensure the products we feature are of the highest standard. This helps us create the most accurate, authentic review content for our readers.
Best Multivitamin for Teen Boys - Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin - for Him
SPECS
- Price: $$
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 2 capsules daily
- Serving size: 2 capsules
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Multivitamin formula
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
While many teens are health conscious and strive to eat nutritious foods, with their hectic schedule, it can be difficult to achieve optimal nutrition from their diet alone. If you are looking to improve your teen's nutrition by supplementing key vitamins and minerals, a standard multivitamin is likely the best option. However, it is important to remember that teen multivitamins differ in the nutrients provided and in the quality of those nutrients.
We chose Ritual Essential for Teens as the best vitamin for teen boys because of its excellent price-to-quality ratio. Ritual Teen Essential Vitamins have highly bioavailable ingredients that focus on the key nutrients most likely to be missing from a teen's diet. This multi-formula also has ingredients to help bolster the immune system by providing zinc and vitamin A and to support cognitive function and brain health with omega-3s and vitamin B12.
What We Like
- Contains the essential nutrients to support teen boys' health
- Delayed-release capsule is easier on stomach
- Vegan-friendly
- Third-party tested
What We Don't Like
- Requires a monthly subscription
- More expensive than other brands
BUY: Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin - for Him
Best Multivitamin for Teen Girls - Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin - for Her
SPECS
- Price: $$
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 2 capsules daily
- Serving size: 2 capsules
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Multivitamin formula
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
The Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin has custom formulas for both boys and girls, so it should come as no surprise that this beadlet-in-oil multi is our top pick for this category. The primary difference between the girl's and the boy's formula is that the girls' formula includes 8 milligrams of iron because girls are at higher risk of iron deficiency anemia related to menstrual cycle blood loss.
Additionally, this multivitamin is vegan, gluten and major-allergen free, and is mint-essenced to make it an easier pill to swallow. Ritual also contains 10 traceable ingredients, ensuring that you know exactly where each vitamin and mineral was sourced from.
What We Like
- Contains the essential nutrients to support teen girl's health
- Delayed-release capsule is easier on stomach
- Vegan-friendly
- Third-party tested
What We Don't Like
- Requires a monthly subscription
- More expensive than other brands
BUY: Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin - for Her
Best Gummy Multivitamin for Teens - Future Kind Organic Vegan Kids Multivitamin Gummies
SPECS
- Price: $
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 2 gummies daily
- Serving size: 2 gummies
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamins B6 and B12, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, iodine, zinc, sodium
- Sweetener: Organic cane sugar
Why We Picked It
There are many health benefits to taking a daily multivitamin, but swallowing a pill or capsule may be inconvenient. If your teen doesn't like to swallow pills, a fruity multivitamin gummy is a good option.
When assessing teen multivitamin gummies, we selected Future Kind Kids Multivitamin Gummies as the best because they offer a comprehensive list of nutrients in the most bioavailable forms. For example, this gummy vitamin contains folate, vitamin B12 as cyanocobalamin, iodine as potassium iodide, and zinc citrate.
What We Like
- Contains the essential nutrients teens need
- Third-party tested
- Vegan and gluten-free
- Less expensive than other brands
What We Don't Like
- Contains some added sugar
- Doesn't have iron
BUY: Future Kind Organic Vegan Kids Multivitamin Gummies
Best Multivitamin for Teens for Growth - Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin
SPECS
- Price: $$
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 2 capsules daily
- Serving size: 2 capsules
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Multivitamin formula
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
Ritual Essentials for Teens are created with the ages of 13 to 17 in mind because this is an important time for a child's growth and development. With thoughtful formulas for teen boys and girls, Ritual provides growing teens (and their parents) a traceable, non-GMO capsule with ingredients to help aid immune function, red blood cell formation, bone support, and cognition.
Additionally, mint-essenced, delayed-release capsules are formulated to be taken with or without a meal so they're much gentler on the stomach than other multivitamin capsules. These capsules are also gluten-free and vegan and should be free of most major allergens.
What We Like
- Contains the essential nutrients to support teen health and growth
- Delayed-release capsule is easier on stomach
- Vegan-friendly
- Third-party tested
What We Don't Like
- Requires a monthly subscription
- More expensive than other brands
BUY: Ritual Essential for Teens Multivitamin
Best Multivitamin for Active Teens - Transparent Labs Multivitamin
SPECS
- Price: $
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 1 serving with your first meal of the day
- Serving size: 4 capsules
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Vitamins A-K, biotin, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, sodium, potassium, ashwagandha extract, coQ10
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
If you’ve ever been in charge of feeding and caring for a teen athlete, or just an active teen in general, you know just how much fuel they demand to keep running. And unfortunately, most of that fuel rarely qualifies as "premium." But make no mistake: active people of all ages, but especially growing teenagers, require more nutrients than sedentary ones!
That’s why we like Transparent Labs Multivitamin for active teens: it’s designed for active men and women, with all the essential vitamins, but also plenty of the minerals that get sweated out in sports, activity, and, well, just being a sweaty teenaged knot of hormones. The price per serving is reasonable, the dose is easy to split for smaller teens, and a little bit of patented ashwagandha for stress support definitely doesn't hurt!
What We Like
- Well over 100% of RDA on most essential vitamins
- Vegan-friendly
- Third-party tested
- Rich mineral content to replace what gets sweated out
What We Don't Like
- 4 capsules daily is a mighty big dose
- Doesn't include iron
BUY: Transparent Labs Multivitamin
Best Organic Multivitamin for Teens - Kaged Multivitamin
SPECS
- Price: $$
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 1 serving per day
- Serving size: 2 capsules
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Multivitamin formula, organic fruits and vegetables
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
Kaged is a sports supplement company, not just a wellness company, and their comprehensive whole-food multi checks the boxes that growing bodies demand…but often don’t get enough of. One two-capsule serving brings exactly 100% of 21 different vitamins and minerals, rather than multis which includes 60% of one and 2500% of another, with no explanation of why. The lineup includes all the essential letters of course, but also iron and the trace minerals that get sweated out in activity.
Another great thing about this multi: it comes from organic whole foods, with the nutrition label showing exactly where each nutrient comes from. With third-party testing for purity and Informed-Sport certifications behind it, this is a high-quality nutritional tool to fill the gaps in your teen’s diet.
What We Like
- 100% of 21 vitamins and minerals
- Vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO
- Third-party tested and safe for sport
- Organic whole food-based
What We Don't Like
- Pricey compared to non-whole foods-based multis
- Capsules may be difficult to swallow for some
Best Subscription Multivitamin for Teens - Transparent Labs Multivitamin
SPECS
- Price: $
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 1 serving with your first meal of the day
- Serving size: 4 capsules
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Vitamins A-K, biotin, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, sodium, potassium, ashwagandha extract, coQ10
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
Transparent Labs offer a subscribe-and-save program for an extra 10% off and free shipping on your monthly multivitamin order. After signing up, you can choose how often your order is sent and can pause or cancel as needed. This subscription program also will get you exclusive promotions and special discounts. Signing up for a subscription program can make supplementation much easier for busy parents and teens because it practically guarantees that you will always have a ready-to-go supply of nutritional multivitamins. And with Transparent Labs, you're getting a very bioavailable and comprehensive multivitamin for your teen.
What We Like
- Well over 100% of RDA on most essential vitamins
- Vegan-friendly
- Third-party tested
- Rich mineral content to replace what gets sweated out
What We Don't Like
- 4 capsules daily is a mighty big dose
- Doesn't include iron
BUY: Transparent Labs Multivitamin
Best Vegan Multivitamin for Teens - Future Kind Kids Multivitamin Gummies
SPECS
- Price: $
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 2 gummies daily
- Serving size: 2 gummies
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamins B6 and B12, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, iodine, zinc, sodium
- Sweetener: Organic cane sugar
Why We Picked It
Looking for a surefire argument with a moody teen? Try to get them to eat a legit five servings of fruit and vegetables every day, over and over again. Or, if you’re not up for that, you can easily hand your teen a two-gummy serving of vegan-friendly Future Kind Kids Multivitamins. So while there’s no substitute for actual food, this is definitely a head start for kids who need one, especially if you have a teen with a more restrictive diet or allergies. These gummies are also much lower in sugar than the average gummy vitamin.
What We Like
- Contains the essential nutrients teens need
- Less expensive than other brands
- Vegan and gluten-free
- Third-party tested
What We Don't Like
- Contains some added sugar
- Doesn't have iron
BUY: Future Kind Organic Vegan Kids Multivitamin Gummies
Best Budget Multivitamin for Teens - New Chapter Kids Multivitamin Gummies
SPECS
- Price: $
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 2 gummies daily
- Serving size: 2 gummies
- Servings per container: 30
- Active ingredient: Vitamins A-K, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, iodine, zinc, selenium, chromium, organic berry blend
- Sweetener: Organic blue agave fiber, organic cane sugar
Why We Picked It
Between school, extracurricular activities, and clothing, teens are already pretty expensive so a budget-friendly multivitamin can be really helpful. Although taking a daily multivitamin is one of the most cost-effective ways to fill in the gaps in nutritional deficiencies, the cost can add up. There are several economical teen multivitamins on the market, but they do not necessarily contain the most essential nutrients at the correct doses.
When assessing teen multivitamins at this price point, we selected New Chapter Kids Multivitamin Gummies because of its comprehensive ingredient list at appropriate dosing levels. The goal of multivitamins is to complement a nutritious diet. Some multivitamins overcompensate and include high doses of vitamins and minerals. New Chapter's formula contains the 17 essential nutrients plus elderberry for immune health. The mixed fruit flavor also tastes great and is easy to take.
What We Like
- Budget-friendly
- Lower in total sugar
- Easy to chew
- Options for subscribe-and-save on multiple products
What We Don't Like
- Uses proprietary blend
- Doesn't contain iron
BUY: New Chapter Kids Multivitamin Gummies
Best Gluten-Free Multivitamin for Teens - New Chapter Tiny Tabs Multivitamin
SPECS
- Price: $$
- Flavor rating: 1
- Dosage recommendations: Take 6 tablets daily
- Serving size: 6 mini tablets
- Servings per container: 32
- Active ingredient: Vitamins A-K, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, iron, iodine, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium
- Sweetener: None
Why We Picked It
If your teen has a sensitivity or intolerance to gluten or chooses to avoid gluten-based foods, then New Chapter Tiny Tabs is a great choice for their dietary needs. These tiny tablets are easier to swallow and are full of vitamins and minerals from fermented whole foods, meaning they're more absorbable in the body.
New Chapter Tiny Tabs are stomach-friendly and can be taken at any time during the day, with or without food. It's almost hard to believe that all the nutrients your teen needs could be packed into such a little package, but New Chapter made it happen. These multivitamins are also free from pesticides, heavy metals, and major allergens.
What We Like
- Certified gluten-free by NSF
- 22 fermented whole-food ingredients
- Small and easy-to-swallow tablets
- Subscribe-and-save program
What We Don't Like
- Tablets are smaller, but you have to take 6 of them
BUY: New Chapter Tiny Tabs Multivitamin
Why You Should Consider a Multivitamin for Teens
For growing teens, taking a daily multivitamin with key nutrients offers several health benefits:
- Boosts energy levels
- Improves eye health
- Bolsters immunity
- Supports bone and teeth development
- Increases red blood cell production
- Decreases inflammation
- Improves cognitive function
Vitamin use is increasing in the United States for good reason. Multiple studies have shown that supplementing a healthy diet with vitamins has specific health benefits like improved cardiovascular health, improved cognitive function, and enhanced immune function.(2)
The best teen vitamins depend on multiple factors such as dietary intake, allergies, and medical history. Most teens can optimize their nutrition with a high-quality multivitamin.
The goal of multivitamin use is to fill in nutritional gaps and provide nutrients that you can't easily consume in the average diet. Vitamin supplements are not a replacement for good nutrition. The fundamental basis of optimizing growth and development is eating a healthy diet, but augmenting a well-balanced diet with a high-quality multivitamin adds extra insurance.
A standard multivitamin for teens will typically include:
Vitamins
- Vitamin A: Improves eye health and boosts immunity
- Vitamin B12: Helps release energy from food
- Vitamin C: Increases immunity
- Vitamin D: Supports bone development, boosts immune function, and reduces inflammation
- Vitamin K: Promotes blood clotting
Minerals
- Magnesium: Helps convert food into energy
- Zinc: Catalysts in new cell and enzyme production
- Boron: Helps maintain bone health
- Iron: Is the building block of red blood cells
What to Look for in a Multivitamin for Teens
When selecting the best multivitamin for your teen, there are four key factors to consider.
Bioavailability
Bioavailability refers to how much of a nutrient can be absorbed, or is available for use, by the body. How vitamins and minerals are processed impacts their bioavailability. For example
Methylcobalamin is a naturally occurring form of vitamin B12 and is more bioavailable than the synthetic version of vitamin B12, cyanocobalamin. Researching which form of nutrients is in supplements helps determine the quality of the product.
Dose
The dose of vitamins and minerals varies depending on who the supplement is intended for. The food and drug administration determines recommended daily allowances, or RDAs, for the most common vitamins and minerals based on age and gender. When purchasing a multivitamin, verify the RDAs listed on the label are correct for the intended recipient.
Form
Multivitamins are available in multiple different forms. The most common forms are chewable gummies or tablets. There are also capsules and liquid drops. When choosing the form, make a decision based on what your teen is most comfortable taking on a daily basis.
Third-Party Testing
Third-party testing refers to the process of an independent lab testing a product for purity and quality. This process verifies the quality of the ingredient list by ensuring the product is free of contaminants or banned substances. A common certification of authenticity in the United States is the USP or the United States Pharmacopeia seal. It is always best to choose a vitamin that is third-party tested.
How We Rate Supplements
In addition to providing the pros and cons of each supplement, we break down key consumer concerns: price or affordability and flavor options.
Price/Affordability (scale of $-$$$)
$ = under $1 per serving
$$ = $1-2 per serving
$$$ = over $2 per serving
Flavor Options (scale of 1-3)
Having a good flavor does not influence the effectiveness of a product, but enjoying the flavor may make it easier to consistently take it. Therefore, we use the following scale to break down the flavor options for each product:
N/A = Unflavored
1 = 1-2 flavor options
2 = 3-4 flavor options
3 = 5 or more flavor options
FAQs About Multivitamins for Teens
Is it good to take vitamins as a teenager?
Yes, many teenagers benefit from taking a daily multivitamin. In general, eating a well-balanced diet is the cornerstone of good nutrition, but it is often difficult to consume all of the key nutrients from a diet alone.
What vitamin is good for a teenage girl?
A standard teen multivitamin is a good option for most teenage girls. Girls are at higher risk for iron deficiency anemia than boys, so selecting a multivitamin that contains iron is a good idea for girls.
What are the best vitamins for teen boys?
A high-quality multivitamin helps support teenage boys through puberty and growth spurts. Look for multivitamins that contain zinc which is necessary for testosterone production, vitamin D for bone strength, and magnesium for muscle function.
Can teenagers take multivitamin tablets?
Teenagers can take multivitamin tablets, but they should take supplements that are formulated for teens. Teenagers should not take a standard adult multivitamin because the doses of key nutrients are different. If your teen doesn't like to swallow tablets, gummy multivitamins are a good option.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
References
- Kocaoz S, Cirpan R, Degirmencioglu AZ. The prevalence and impacts heavy menstrual bleeding on anemia, fatigue and quality of life in women of reproductive age. Pak J Med Sci. 2019 Mar-Apr;35(2):365-370. doi: 10.12669/pjms.35.2.644. PMID: 31086516; PMCID: PMC6500811.
- Han, J., Zhao, C., Cai, J., and Liang, Y. Comparative efficacy of vitamin supplements on prevention of major cardiovascular disease: Systematic review with network meta-analysis, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Volume 39, 2020, 101142, ISSN 1744-3881, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2020.101142.
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