My 18y/o has a Dell netbook and I am able to scrap on it just fine. Its a little small but I made this layout on it(so you know if she got into any type of graphic design class in school):
She uses it for reports and such. We use a 1 gigabyte USB thumb drive for transferring files back and forth. She also has an external DVD drive for it but does not use it a whole lot. It works well for internet too. She also likes the size and the weight of it. It does not add alot of bulk to her backpack.