March 02, 2026
Michaela Althouse/PhillyVoice
Fab Youth Philly has opened a thrift store for teens ages 15-19 at its headquarters in Harrowgate. Teens can find prom dresses and formal wear, among other items.
For Rebecca Fabiano, Fab Youth Philly's new student-run thrift store in Harrowgate is more than a place where teens can buy secondhand clothing. It offers them a chance to play with different styles as they get to know themselves.
"Clothing is just an important part of how young people are developing as adolescents into adulthood and continuing to explore their identity," said Fabiano, Fab Youth Philly's executive director. "It's how they connect with their peers, and we want young people to feel good and have a sense of dignity."
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Fab Youth Philly, a workforce development organization for teens, opened the youth-led clothing store at 2025 E. Atlantic St. — the organization's headquarters — in early February. On Thursdays and Fridays from 3-6 p.m., teens ages 15-19 can fill a bag and head to the register, where they are told what their selections would have cost at a traditional thrift store. But here, they take their clothes home for free. Available items include workwear for job interviews and internships, formalwear for proms and dances and casual clothing for every day.
Downstairs, the Fab Youth Philly offers some sewing and alterations workshops for teens to repair or customize their finds. The store is staffed by teens, too, so shoppers can connect with their peers while perusing clothing, and workers can get firsthand experience in potential career paths.
"I would love to do a career in fashion," said Brianna Valente, 18, one of the store's workers. "I love helping people find what they might be looking for, putting outfits together and just styling pieces in general. So, I'm very passionate about that."
Fabiano said Fab Youth Philly has sought to provide clothing to teens for a few years, especially given the expenses that come with being a teenager. In addition to paying for proms, graduations, senior week, dates and yearbooks, she said many teens also help out with groceries and utilities at home, or seek to build financial independence by paying their own phone bills.
To help, Fab Youth Philly hosted a prom wear giveaway in 2023, and more than 100 teens came out, Fabiano said. The next year, the organization added suits, blazers and other work items to help young people on the job hunt.
Teens shop in the casual clothing room at Fab Youth Philly's new thrift store.
Michaela Althouse/PhillyVoice
"We kept hearing over and over from teens, they kept saying, 'We would shop in a place like this if we could all the time,'" Fabiano said. "We try to be really responsive to what teens tell us, and so we thought 'Well, could we create this youth-run thrift store?'"
The thrift store is donation-based and accepts new clothes, although Fab Youth Philly also works in partnership with organizations such as Circle Thrift to provide the clothing. Inventory is currently limited to clothing and some instruments from Rock to the Future, but Fabiano hopes to add more items, such as small appliances for teens moving into college dorms or their first apartments.
The thrift store so far has been funded by grants, but Fabiano is open to the idea that it could move into a regular business model. Worker Keoni Hall, 16, said that given the positive response so far, he'd love to see the store expand into a bigger space or add more locations.
"There have been teens that came back-to-back literally every day, every Thursday and Friday, just to get clothes," Hall said. "So, I think the response from the community is lovely and wonderful."
