Why is object null?

i am trying to access an object within a class and the object is comming up as null but i dont understand why.

this is the object:
btnLMain = new MovieClip(); //variable declared earlier in code
btnLMain.name = “btnLMain”;
btnLMain.clickNum = 0;
addChild(btnLMain);

this was created in the class: LanguageButton.

here is how i declared the above class within the class i am trying to instantiate it:
var btnL:LanguageButton;

then i try to access the btnLMain from the LanguageButton Class and it, (btnLMain) is comming out null:

btnL = new LanguageButton(cssLoader);
main.addChild(btnL);

[COLOR="#ff00ff"]btnL.btnLMain.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, btnLClick);[/COLOR]

do you see what i am doing wrong?