Does my kid need an LLC?

Almost certainly not, and this is one of the more common ways families spend money they did not need to spend.

Start with what already exists. A business with no paperwork at all is a sole proprietorship by default. Nothing has to be filed for that to be true, it costs nothing, and it is the correct structure for a kid mowing lawns or selling bracelets. Your kid already has a business structure. It is this one.

An LLC exists mainly to separate personal assets from business liabilities. That is a real thing to want when a business could plausibly be sued for more than it has. For a thirteen year old raking leaves, the assets being protected are a bike and a savings account, and the protection is answering a risk that insurance or common sense handles better.

It also costs. There is a filing fee to form one, most states charge something annually to keep it alive, and there are reports to remember. Miss them and the thing you paid for lapses. That is an ongoing administrative obligation landing on a household in exchange for protection that is mostly theoretical at this scale.

There is also a wrinkle specific to minors. A minor generally cannot sign the formation documents or the operating agreement, so a parent ends up as a member or manager, which means the entity is not cleanly the kid's anyway.

Four situations make it worth actually asking somebody qualified. Revenue that has stopped being small. Employees. Work with genuine liability exposure, meaning power equipment, ladders, vehicles, or food. And a customer or platform that requires it as a condition of doing business.

Until one of those is true, the honest answer is that the money is better spent on equipment, or left in the business, or frankly left in your kid's pocket.

This is a starting point rather than a ruling. State rules differ and none of this is legal advice.