What is Tickleberry Place?

Tickleberry Place is a fun and educational indoor play space promoting active lifestyles for children and a comfortable spot for parents of South Los Angeles. Our mission is to provide a safe, healthy and eco-friendly environment locally for families, kids and the community. We want kids in our community to be educated and entertained at the same time. We want the parents to be comfortable in a beautiful space while they watch their children.

 A Little About Us

We're Lauren and Meghan, native South LA residents, twins and the founders of Tickleberry Place. We decided to return home after finishing college to build a future for ourselves and to help reshape our community. We are using our User Experience and Operations backgrounds to create an amazing experience that our community has not seen before.

What Inspired Tickleberry Place?

A few years ago I (Lauren) babysat a two-year-old boy on the weekends. I wanted to find enriching activities for him other than the same old park. After searching online for indoor play spaces, I discovered a serious lack of them in South Los Angeles. When I did find them more than a few miles away, I felt they were missing a lot of important elements.

What is the Motivation Behind Tickleberry Place?

We put our heads together and decided we wanted to improve the indoor play experience for children within our community, and at the same time give parents peace of mind in a space that is clean, safe and consistently maintained. We also wanted quality food options to finally be available to our community by featuring a healthy snack and organic coffee bar in the space.

Why South L.A. Specifically?

When we were kids, our dad had to drive long distances to find safe spaces for us to play in and that hadn’t changed when I started looking after this little boy. We also witnessed the struggles many of our friends and neighbors had to endure. Cities that seemed mere minutes away by car were worlds apart to many around us. There has been a demand for this kind of space here for quite some time. After years of neglect, we agreed that South LA was long overdue.

What Should Customers Expect from a Tickleberry Place Experience?

When you enter our space, you will be greeted with a chic lounge area comfortable enough for parents to connect and relax in. They can also hang out in our small café area, get some work done with a cup of coffee and an organic treat while Tickleberry Place staff supervise their little ones.

The open play space will host a variety of activities such as yoga, Mommy & Me groups, and storytelling for kids. Our smaller rooms will include a reading corner, an art room, and even an eco-science lab. And because birthday celebrations are a MUST, we will have a designated room for Tickleberry Place parties while the space is open to the public for play.

Most importantly, we envision Tickleberry Place as a community hub. We plan to offer parenting workshops, host informative talks and provide a space where families, friends and neighbors can come to mingle and exchange ideas.

What Did You Have In Mind for Tickleberry Place’s Design?

Tickleberry Place will be a beautiful, custom designed experience where kids are free to explore and unleash their wildest imaginations.

We’re all about simple, clean and contemporary design. Eco-friendly materials like wooden pallets, cork flooring and shipping containers will make up the design of the space. We will also have a custom built playhouse constructed entirely from non-toxic materials. But above all, Tickleberry Place will reflect how excited we are about welcoming families of South Los Angeles. This is going to expand their horizons and we can’t wait!

Our Milestones

• We signed our lease in March 2017
• We are in the beginning stages of designing our space and obtaining the necessary permits
• Construction will begin in June 2017
• Our goal is to have our Grand Opening in Fall 2017

We’ve assembled a great team, counseled with our local city officials and with your help, we can create this unique play space to meet the needs of you and the community.

Our Location

We are located in the View Park/Windsor Hills neighborhood. Our building is on the prominent corner of Slauson and Overhill. Right in the middle of some local restaurants and other fresh business that are opening soon.

How You Fit In

With your generous contribution you will get a t-shirt, Tickleberry plush or early access to memberships. The $30,000 is a portion of the funds needed to open our doors. This will help us build our play structure and purchase equipment for our cafe area. You'll be a great part of us reshaping our community!