Mental Health PlaybookLet Grow
- Geographic Focus: United States
- Mission: Let Grow is making it easy, normal and legal to give kids back the independence and free play they need to grow into competent, confident, happy adults.
- Operating Budget: $1.2 million
- People Served: Parents (with the aim of getting them to trust kids with more independence) and schools (with the aim of nudging parents into this new mindset).
- Focus Areas and Core Competencies: Parental attitudes: Helping parents see how some independence, responsibility and free play can give anxious, passive kids new confidence and meaning. Culture change: Reverse-engineering the infantilizing trends that are contributing to astronomical rates of childhood anxiety and depression.
Impact Statement
Let Grow’s programs for families, schools and counselors have impacted over 836,000 kids in 2024 by giving them back the building blocks of a happy, meaningful childhood, an opportunity to do real things in the real world and a chance to play the old-fashioned way, without constant adult intervention.
A conversation with Lenore Skenazy, president and co-founder of Let Grow
Q: What is the mission of your organization? What specific areas related to mental health challenges are you working to solve?
Let Grow champions childhood independence by advocating for exposure rather than protection to combat anxiety. Today’s children are often underestimated and overly shielded, leading to what my Let Grow co-founder Jonathan Haidt calls “The Anxious Generation.” To become competent adults, kids need to engage in independent activities like playing and running errands, which develop their trustworthiness and coping skills. Our co-founder professor Peter Gray notes that these activities also bring short and long-term happiness. We aim to make it normal and legal for parents and schools to foster this independence, helping kids become capable and confident adults.
As Gray writes in The Journal of Pediatrics, “Children who have more opportunities for independent activities are happier in the short run, because the activities engender a sense of trustworthiness and competence, but also in the long run, because they [develop the] capacities for coping with life’s inevitable stressors.”
That’s why we are creating a new path for parents, schools and America itself. Our programs and thought leadership are making it easy, normal and legal to give kids the independence they need to grow into capable, confident and happy adults.
Q: How do you describe the big goals your organization is working to achieve? How do you measure impact?
The main goal is to normalize giving kids more freedom, as this helps them develop important life skills like empathy and resilience, which are currently being taught through costly educational materials. When children lack independence, they miss out on valuable experiences that foster an internal locus of control—the belief in their ability to manage life. Today, many kids feel powerless, with an external locus of control, leading to feelings of helplessness.
At Let Grow, we promote childhood independence through thought leadership and programs like the Let Grow Experience and Play Club. These initiatives encourage children to try new tasks independently, breaking cycles of anxiety and over-parenting. A University of Michigan poll showed that 50% of parents don’t allow kids aged 9-11 to even go to a different store aisle alone, highlighting the need for change.
The Let Grow Experience assigns homework tasks that require children to perform new activities independently, fostering confidence in both generations. Meanwhile, the Play Club offers a space for mixed-age, lightly supervised play, enhancing social-emotional skills. Both programs effectively reduce over-parenting and its associated anxieties, as seen through positive transformations in participating schools and families.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges the organization has experienced in working to accomplish its mission? How did your organization overcome those challenges?
The main challenge we face is changing the perception that free play is “wasted time” when, in fact, it significantly enriches mental health and brain development. We share evidence to highlight its importance. Another challenge is the belief that allowing kids to act independently is too dangerous. We tackle this by providing crime statistics and scientific data showing that risks like falling from a tree, or being kidnapped by a stranger, are much lower than everyday activities, such as driving. Additionally, we share stories of children who have independently engaged in activities, which has led to greater happiness for their families.
Q: What are the organization’s biggest needs? How can philanthropists help your organization achieve its goals?
We aim to promote children’s independence and free play, countering the trend of increased supervision. To achieve this, we need more schools to adopt our free initiatives. This requires additional staff and funding to spread our message, form partnerships with organizations like The American School Counselor Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, engage community groups and participate in events like South by Southwest (SXSW).
Q: Beyond the organization, where should philanthropists who care about advancing knowledge related to improving mental health invest their charitable dollars?
We are big fans of Scouting! Scouting gets kids outside, builds skills and gives older kids responsibility. We are also fans of organizations and efforts such as Acton Academies, Conor Boyack’s Children’s Entrepreneur Market Program and 4H, which are providing programs to create bold and resilient life-long learners.
Contact Our Team
Contact the Roundtable’s Programs team to learn more about this investment opportunity.