01 / The story behind the room
Young people deserve a place of their own. We started with the simple feeling that growing up should involve getting out of the house.
Why we made Main Room ↓what we believe
Outside school and organized activities, teenagers have surprisingly few places made for them. Because young people don't have much spending power, businesses rarely build around their social lives. The result is a city full of places to pass through, but very few places to belong for an evening.
We host one night each season. The idea is to give you and your friends a few dates you can count on each year, with somewhere to go and a reason to get together.
Music. Good company. Real life.
The origin
It was not very long ago that the Main Room team was in the same position as students today. We can remember countless evenings spent waiting for a plan to appear—we wanted to go somewhere we were actually welcome (not our local mall), but kept finding there was simply nowhere to go.
Screens fill that blank space extremely well. It is easy to call that a preference, but often it is simply the most available answer to boredom. Main Room began with a different question: what if the offline option were just as easy to choose, and much more worth remembering?
The bigger picture
We want to rethink what growing up in America can look like. We see three areas where young people deserve more support.
More places to spend time together, meet people, and find your own circle outside school.
More help learning the everyday skills that life asks of you, but that school often leaves out.
More chances to take part in your community and understand the responsibility we have to one another.
The event series is where we’re starting: giving young people more opportunities to be together. Stay tuned for what comes next in life skills and civic duty.
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