Letgroworg

Let Grow was co-founded by Lenore Skenazy, the author and activist behind the Free-Range Kids movement, along with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and other childhood development advocates. The organization grew out of a shared concern that overprotective parenting and institutional risk-aversion were robbing kids of the independence they need to develop genuine resilience.

The Let Grow Project is a homework assignment that schools can adopt: kids are sent home with instructions to do one thing on their own, without their parents, that they have never done before. The goal is to give children a structured nudge toward independence and demonstrate to both kids and parents that children can handle more than adults typically assume.

Let Grow uses the term anti-fragile — popularized by author Nassim Nicholas Taleb — to argue that children are not just resilient but actually get stronger through manageable stress, risk, and challenge. The organization pushes back against the idea that kids must be shielded from every difficulty, arguing that over-protection can make children less capable, not safer.

In several U.S. states, parents have faced calls to child protective services simply for letting their kids walk to school, play at a park unsupervised, or wait briefly in a car — activities that were completely normal a generation ago. Let Grow advocates for free-range parenting laws that explicitly protect parents' right to grant children reasonable independence, and Utah was among the first states to pass such legislation.

Lenore Skenazy is the journalist and author who became widely known — and widely debated — after writing about letting her then-9-year-old ride the New York City subway alone, an experience she documented in her book Free-Range Kids. She went on to co-found Let Grow as an organization to turn that philosophy into practical tools and policy change for parents, schools, and lawmakers across the country.

Yes, working with schools is central to Let Grow's mission. Beyond the Let Grow Project homework assignment, the organization provides resources for educators to build more free play and independent problem-solving time into the school day. The idea is that schools are one of the most powerful levers for normalizing childhood independence at scale.

Utah passed the first law in the U.S. explicitly protecting parents who allow children reasonable unsupervised activities, and several other states have since followed with similar legislation. Let Grow has been part of the broader advocacy effort behind these legal protections, which aim to clarify that letting a capable child walk to a park or play outside alone is not neglect.

Let Grow promotes a mix of outdoor free play, DIY hands-on projects, and everyday independence tasks — things like making a cardboard TV from an empty box, building a snow globe, walking to a friend's house alone, or cooking a simple meal. The common thread is that the activity should be something the child does largely on their own, building confidence and practical skills without a parent hovering.

Unstructured play means free time where children choose their own activities, set their own rules, and resolve their own conflicts without adult direction — think building forts, pickup games, or imaginative backyard play. Let Grow promotes it because research links child-led free play to better emotional regulation, creativity, and social skills, and because rates of this kind of play have dropped sharply over the past few decades.

Yes, Let Grow is a registered nonprofit based in the United States. Its mission-driven model focuses on shifting cultural and legal norms around childhood independence through advocacy, school partnerships, and public education rather than selling products or services.