Research suggests that young adults are motivated in school contexts when they believe in their own self‐efficacy, have intrinsic motivation, set goals, experience agency, and demonstrate interest. To highlight how online spaces foster motivation, we focus specifically on two project‐based DIY sites, Figment.com and Scratch.mit.edu. From reading and writing to programming and designing, these environments offer young adults around the world an opportunity to interact and collaborate with others around a shared passion. We focus specifically on the design features of these DIY sites and consider how they motivate young adults’ digital literacy practices.