OUR STORY
Hi! I’m Rhianna and I founded The Uncool Club in 2018 as a way to create some meaningful connections with like-minded people. By “like-minded people”, I meant people like me - 20-somethings who found it hard to forge meaningful friendships as an adult, people who weren’t ever considered the “cool kid”, people who just wanted a place to feel seen.
The Uncool Club in its original form was a weekly, community-led email newsletter, which then led to the creation of the Facebook group. The group had about 50 members and was almost always silent. I didn’t know how to execute the vision I had for TUC during a time when I had so much else to balance so, eventually, I quietly kicked it to the kerb, mentally putting a pin in the idea for when the time was right.
During the pandemic, I revitalised the Facebook group as a way to encourage virtual connection in a time when loneliness and isolation were felt by so many. Then, when the world re-opened, the group didn’t serve as much of a purpose in a world where people leaned away from virtual and back into real life, it fizzled and was left amongst the thousands of other similar groups in the Facebook graveyard of forgotten spaces.
In late 2023 I was newly married, newly 30, in another new job, with a small handful of friends up and down the country who I felt like I rarely saw. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how hard it is to make plans as an adult, finding a time when everyone is available becomes harder and harder the more life changes.
I was craving community, in a world and at an age where it feels impossible to find new people, when it hit me and I re-launched The Uncool Club. I was practically bursting with ideas, convinced the third time would be the charm and this would finally be the moment The Uncool Club could be everything I wanted it to be back in 2018.
Almost 1,000 members later, it turns out I was right.
It turned out I wasn’t the only one who was craving this community. So many people, of all ages, identities, locations, and interests have joined the club and found a place they can call home. We’ve come from a small email newsletter and built a place where anyone can be their own version of Uncool, both online and in-person, and I couldn’t be more proud of the friends we’ve made along the way.
And this is just the beginning.