At a time when young people are often spoken about rather than listened to, Our Happy Place (OHP) is attempting to shift the narrative. Led by award-winning journalist, podcaster and documentary storyteller Loveena Tandon, the initiative is a fully funded, 12-week media project designed for 16–18-year-olds.
Its aim is simple yet powerful: to create a space where young people can tell their own stories, explore identity, connection and shared experiences through storytelling, while building real-world media and communication skills.
Participants will collaborate to produce an eight-episode video podcast series for public release, gaining hands-on experience in storytelling, production and teamwork. But beyond the technical skills, OHP is rooted in a deeper purpose, rebalancing who gets to shape narratives.
Tandon believes that young people today are widely misunderstood. “The issue isn’t a lack of thought or insight, it’s often the way those thoughts are expressed, or more importantly, the fact that we’re not really listening,” she says.
“What they feel they lack is direction”, she explains. This gap between potential and guidance is one OHP seeks to address, not by imposing solutions, but by including young people in the process of shaping them.
At its core, the programme is about participation and ownership. “If they’re facing challenges, they should be part of shaping the answers,” Tandon says. “When young people are included in this way, they don’t just participate, they become stakeholders in the change they want to see.”
A key focus of OHP is bringing together a diverse group of participants from different cultural and social backgrounds. Tandon is intentional about this mix, seeing it as a way to address growing societal divisions. “We are far more similar than we are different,” she says. “The problem is not our differences—it’s that we don’t communicate enough, or not in ways that truly connect.”
The initiative aims to foster cultural cohesion by creating opportunities for collaboration and conversation among young people who might not otherwise interact.
Equally important is the emphasis on confidence and self-expression. Tandon highlights the fear of judgement as a major barrier for teenagers today. “It’s not that they don’t want to express themselves; it’s that they’re cautious about how they’ll be perceived,” she explains. “There’s a real fear of being judged, and beyond that, of being mocked.”
OHP addresses this by creating a non-judgemental environment where participants can choose how and when they express themselves. “Young people should feel that they have control over their voice”, she says.
For Tandon, the impact she hopes to create goes beyond skills or output. Her vision is rooted in connection. “My hope—my small contribution—is that young people come away realising something quite simple but powerful: we are far more alike than we think,” she says.
She describes the project as a step towards a more cohesive cultural conversation—one that is less about division and more about understanding. “What we’re trying to do is make that conversation more open, more accessible, and more real,” she adds.
