What are "rites of passage" anyway?

We often think rites of passage as a special way to mark a major life transition. This might include:

🥂 Weddings 🎂 Big birthday celebrations 🎉 Housewarming parties

But rites of passage have been around for a loooong time, predating modern culture by many millennia. And there’s a good reason for they have been around for so long. Before we had an educational system, before religion even, our ancestors created rites of passage—not just to mark transitions—but to help individuals and communities prepare for them.

For example, in cultures around the world and throughout history, young people went through an adolescent rite of passage. These consisted of a series of challenges designed to help them prepare mentally, emotionally, and physically for life as an adult. The challenges varied greatly from culture to culture:

⭐ In wayfinding societies, young people learned how to navigate using weather, or the stars.

🍁 In agrarian societies, they learned to attune to the cycles of the seasons, and understand the deep synergies of natural systems.

🔗 In warrior cultures, they learned tactics for battle as well as mental and physical resilience.

While these rites of passage helped the young person develop skills, they also helped foster an inner sense of identity, purpose, and belonging in the community.

(Once they completed the challenges – and the adults deemed them ready – THEN they celebrated!)

When we think of the struggles young people face today, a lot of them center around lack of identity, purpose, or belonging.

So why, you may ask, is a company that is all about “smartphone readiness for curious kids” going on and on about rites of passage?

Because the biggest transition in a child’s life today is receiving their first phone. And, until now, we’re doing almost nothing to prepare them.

Kids deserve to have a rite of passage, as filmmaker Frederick Marx says. It is a foundational human need that our ancestors knew a long time ago. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to reimagine this powerful practice for today’s kids and rewrite the story of youth wellbeing.