What a Contract Even Does When You Are Under 18
Sources last read 2026-07-21.
Short answer
A deal you make at 16 is a real deal. It is not banned and it is not void. What is true is that you can usually back out of it and the other side cannot back out just because of your age. That cuts both ways, and it is why some adults are careful with you. The useful question is not whether you can sign. It is what you put on the page when a customer asks for something in writing, and that part is short.
The question everybody answers
Type this into a search box and every page comes back with the same one.
Can a minor sign a contract?
They then spend a thousand words on it, and the answer they give is usually half wrong anyway.
The question you actually have
It is not that one. Yours is in two parts.
Will anybody sign a deal with me? And what do I hand a customer who wants something in writing?
Nobody answers those. So this page does, and the law part comes first because the law part is why the second part looks the way it does.
What your deal is worth right now
A deal you make is real. Start there, because most pages get this bit wrong.
You are not banned from making one. It is not thrown out for being yours. What you get is an exit that an adult does not get. The word for using it is disaffirm, which means backing out.
California puts it in a line worth remembering: a minor may make a contract in the same manner as
an adult, subject to the power of disaffirmance. That is California Family Code section 6700, and
your state will have its own version.
Now flip the table around and look at your customer.
You can leave. They cannot leave just because of your age. Washington's court system says so in plain words further down this page.
So the deal binds one of you. That is the whole reason some adults go quiet when they find out how old you are. It is not about your work.
The clause that bites if you make things to order
There is one part of this that hits people who make things, and almost nobody prints it.
California's list of deals a person under 18 cannot make includes this one: Make a contract
relating to any personal property not in the immediate possession or control of the minor. That is
section 6701.
Read what that describes. A promise about a thing you do not have in your hands yet.
Which is exactly what made to order is. Somebody pays you now for a jacket you have not painted, a cake you have not baked, twenty decks you have not cut.
That is California's wording and it is not every state's. But the shape of the problem travels. The further ahead you promise, the shakier the paper gets.
Two practical things follow. Keep the gap between paying and delivering short. And on anything big, get an adult to sign next to you, which turns a shaky promise into a normal one.
How much to take up front is a separate question, and it is answered on they said yes, now what. The short version is the cost of your materials, not half the price.
Where your exit runs out
The internet's favourite line is that a young person can walk away from anything. It is not true, and one state says why in a single sentence.
Washington's laws are numbered as the Revised Code of Washington (RCW). Section 26.28.040 is quoted below. It says the exit closes once you have engaged in business as an adult.
You are doing that. Taking orders, setting prices, handing over receipts. That is the description.
Washington's court system publishes a lesson on this written for students, and it works through a 17 year old with a t-shirt business who wanted to cancel her orders. The answer they give is no.
It was the only thing found in the whole search for this site that explains any of this to a person your age, in words a person your age can read. Everything else was written for adults with lawyers.
What to hand a customer
Here is the practical half. It is shorter than you think and it is not a legal document.
One page, or one message they can keep. Six lines.
Who. Your name, their name. Real names.
What. Exactly what they get. Numbers, sizes, colours. Not "some prints".
When. A date. If it depends on something they have to send you, say that.
How much, and when. The full price. What is paid up front and what is paid at the end.
What happens if it changes. If they want something different halfway through, the price and the date move. Say so now, not later.
Signed by both of you. Typed names in a message thread count as a record. A signature is better.
Then add the line that does the real work: a space for an adult to sign next to you. Not instead of you. Next to you.
That is what most stores do with every person under 18 who walks in, in Washington's own words. It is normal, and it is the thing that makes a careful customer say yes.
An example, to show the shape of it
Tatum is 17 and paints custom skate decks. A local shop asks for twelve, and asks for something in writing before they pay a deposit.
She nearly said no. She had read that a contract with a person under 18 is not binding, and thought the shop would find out and pull out.
What she wrote instead was half a page. Twelve decks, four designs, the colours listed, delivered in two weeks, 600 dollars in total. That is 50 dollars a deck. About 90 dollars of that up front to cover the blank decks and the paint, and the other 510 when she hands them over. A line about changes costing more. A line saying the shop sees the first four before she starts the rest. Her name, the manager's name, and a line underneath for her dad.
The shop signed the same day. They had asked for paper because they wanted the order to hold, not because they were checking up on her.
She kept the money up front small on purpose. Ninety dollars is the sort of number you can hand straight back if the whole thing falls over.
The part to take away
Your deals are real, so treat them that way.
Your age is not your customer's exit, and it is not an insult when they ask for an adult signature. It is how the deal gets made.
And write the six lines down. Almost every argument about money starts as two people remembering the same conversation differently.
Washington Courts, on whether the customer can walk away
The person with whom the minor contracted cannot cancel the contract simply because the other person is a minor... This is why most stores require a parent or other adult to co-sign.
Washington Courts, Minors and Contracts lesson plan
Read the first half twice, because it is good news and nobody tells you. Your customer cannot call the deal off just because you are 16. Your age is not their exit. The second half is why an adult signature keeps coming up. It is how the other side gets a deal that binds both of you, which is the thing they wanted all along.
Washington, on when your right to back out runs out
No contract can be thus disaffirmed in cases where on account of the minor's own misrepresentations as to his or her majority, or from his or her having engaged in business as an adult, the other party had good reasons to believe the minor capable of contracting.
Washington, RCW 26.28.040
Disaffirmed means backed out of. Now find the middle bit. Once you have gone into business like an adult, that exit shuts. So if you take orders, quote prices and hand over receipts, you are the person this line is about. This is one state's law. Yours may be worded another way, and you should go and look.
The same lesson, worked through with somebody your age
Miriam, who is 17 years old, set up her own business making t-shirts. She took and filled many orders... Response: No, Miriam cannot do that. RCW 26.28.040 prevents minors from voiding their contracts when they have engaged in business as an adult
Washington Courts, Minors and Contracts lesson plan
This is a state court system, teaching this to students, using somebody doing exactly what you are doing. Miriam wanted out of orders she had taken. The answer given is no. Running a business is the thing that took the exit away, and it was her own business that did it.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need a contract at all?
For most small jobs, no. A message that says what, when and how much is already a record. You want something written when the job is big, when it runs over weeks, or when you are buying materials up front and cannot get that money back. What to ask for up front is answered on they said yes, now what, not here.
Will an adult sign one with me?
Often yes, and more often if you ask straight out. Plenty of businesses deal with people under 18 on purpose. The ones that hesitate are usually not judging your work. They want a deal that holds, and a parent signing next to you gives them one.
So can I really get out of any deal I make?
No, and do not build anything on that idea. It stops applying once you are clearly in business, at least where the law above applies. It never applied to things you truly needed. It also runs out some time after you turn 18. Treat your deals as real, because they are.
Should I hide how old I am to make this easier?
No. Lying about your age can cost you the protection this whole page is about, and it can end the deal on the spot. It also makes the adult signature harder to get, and that signature is the thing that actually solves the problem.
How do I find my own state's rule?
Search your state's name plus the words minor contract disaffirm, and stop on a .gov or a state court address. Look for two things. Whether the exit exists, and what closes it. Those two answers cover most of what you need.
Where this came from
Washington Courts, Minors and Contracts lesson plan
courts.wa.gov
Washington Legislature, RCW 26.28.040
app.leg.wa.gov