Kids today are growing up caught between screens engineered to hold their attention and a constant pressure to achieve. The result? A generation that is anxious, lonely, and exhausted. The Generation Real Project is a movement to help kids rediscover confidence, resilience, and joy through real opportunities to play, fail, and grow.
Hours once filled with play, activity, and self-discovery are now consumed by lonely scrolls, taps, and clicks. The problem isn’t simply screen time; it’s displacement: the substitution of character-building experiences with attention-consuming activities that lack genuine connection.
Parents possess three powerful forces technology cannot overwhelm: confidence, resilience, and joy.
Confidence begins with safety: the physical and emotional security that encourages constructive risk-taking. Belonging and competence, not superiority, build lifelong confidence.
Resilience develops through experience, not perfection. New activities teach initiation, adaptation, improvisation, and persistence. Meaningful growth requires challenge.
Fun isn’t a distraction from development; it’s what keeps children engaged and open to growth. Lasting memories build through friendship, mentorship, and shared experience.
A practical, evidence-first guide for parents on creating more opportunities for kids to build the confidence, resilience, and joy they need to thrive. Leave your email and we’ll send it to you the moment it’s ready.
The Generation Real Project is led by Youth Enrichment Brands CEO Rob Price and shaped in partnership with advisors who have spent their careers studying how children build confidence, resilience, and a sense of mattering.
Rob leads Youth Enrichment Brands and authored the Generation Real manifesto. He previously spent seven years as President & CEO of School of Rock, with earlier executive roles as President of Edible Arrangements and Chief Marketing Officer at CVS Health. Rob earned an MBA with highest academic honors from Harvard Business School, was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.
Connect with Rob on LinkedIn
A clinical social worker and psychoanalyst with more than 30 years of experience specializing in depression, anxiety, and family attachment. Erica is the author of Being There and Chicken Little the Sky Isn’t Falling, founder of Attachment Circles, a speaker at the United Nations on child development, and a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal.
Visit ericakomisar.com →
An award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Never Enough and Mattering. Jennifer is the founder of The Mattering Institute, a former CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent, and a board member of Harvard’s Making Caring Common project.
Visit jenniferbwallace.com →The Generation Real Consortium brings together mission-driven youth organizations reaching well over a million kids each year. Anchored by the Youth Enrichment Brands family, every member opens a different door to real-world confidence, resilience, and joy.
The global leader in performance-based music education.
The nation’s largest provider of community-based, multi-sport youth leagues.
A network of 200+ swim schools promoting a lifetime of water safety and opportunity.
The official provider of Nike Sports Camps.
Boutique early-childhood ballet built on a joy-first philosophy, nurturing confidence and creativity through imaginative movement.
A child development training platform blending physical activity, cognitive development, and character-building.
School-based fitness events and leadership curriculum that build character and community at the same time.
Screen-free outdoor camps and expeditions in climbing, biking, paddling, and hiking that build real-world resilience.
A simple, judgment-free guide to help your child discover real-world activities they actually love. The Activity Finder teaches you to build a broad list across four developmental domains (physical, artistic, intellectual, and social), introduce options appropriately, and follow your child’s spark. Discovery requires breadth. Commitment requires patience. This is the framework for both.
Download the Activity Finder
A curated reading list from the Generation Real Project, organized around what your family is facing right now: screens, confidence, achievement pressure, and connection. You don’t have to read them all: read a chapter, start a conversation, try one small change.
Download the Reading ListMost parents introduce one or two activities and wonder why nothing sticks. The Activity Finder teaches parents to build a broad list of options across four developmental domains and to introduce them appropriately to their child. Discovery requires breadth. Commitment requires patience. This is the framework for both.
Try the Activity Finder →Your child doesn’t need to be excellent. They need to feel capable. Competence earned through real-world challenge and not optimized for performance is more predictive of long-term wellbeing than any ranking or trophy. The Playbook shows parents how to build it, how to measure it, and how to praise for it specifically.
There’s a version of parental involvement that is a gift to your child and a version that is a burden. Children feel both, and they rarely have the words to tell you which one they’re experiencing. Module 7 of the Playbook gives parents the specific language and habits to show up as the former, consistently, at games, at performances, and at the dinner table.
This Playbook is not anti-technology; it’s anti-anesthetic. Module 5 gives parents a clear framework for active vs. passive screen use, age-based guidance, and the conversation starters that keep you in your child’s online world without making them feel surveilled.
Youth Enrichment Brands offers franchise opportunities with i9 Sports, SafeSplash, and School of Rock. If you’re looking to build a business that helps kids in your community discover real confidence, resilience, and joy, you’ve come to the right place.
Explore Franchising Opportunities →