So... how many 10-14 year-olds are allowed to wave a soldering iron near their mother's PC serious-work computer? Amiga computers were also more popular back in my day-- where was the PIC development software for them? I personally had a Commodore64-- its GPIO was 8 bits of TTL. Oh wait, how were you supposed to program the actual code for PICs again? Where's a 14 year-old going to get the money to buy an MSDOS machine?
As the 'hand-held grandkid' comment alluded too, PICs & etc. /weren't/ hacker-kid-friendly unless they lucked-out and found adult assistance.
By themselves? I think not. If you didn't have a nerd Uncle, you were out of luck.
The Raspberry Pi is like 25 years too late for me... If I were 13 today, I'd be salivating at the thought of getting one I can dedicate to learning Python on, costing less than a Nintendo 3DS video game that my fat (10yo..) brother cries for every month. I can learn with it! :D (Just don't let Mum find out it can view pictures and play movies. ;)