Spreading the Love: One Love Foundation and FableVision Showcase Healthy Friendships in New “Friendlets” Animated Shorts

Episode 1: Cafeteria Conflict

One Love Foundation was founded in memory of Yeardley Love, a young woman who lost her life due to relationship abuse. The organization educates young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships, empowering them to identify and avoid abuse and learn how to love better. Its curriculum includes resources for middle school, high school, and college audiences, including videos, workshops, and peer-to-peer discussions.

One Love wanted to expand its videos to a younger audience as childhood friendships define the types of relationships we have in the future. The way we treat friends and friends treat us manifest into future friendships and relationships. 

To start their healthy friendships curriculum during a formative age, One Love partnered with FableVision to create five 45-second animated shorts to set an early example of healthy friendship behaviors.

Each episode sets up a familiar scenario between two friends and follows the same structure: a negative friendship interaction with “That’s Not Love” displayed, then the tape rewinds and the same scenario resets in a positive way, with “That’s Love” displayed. Through relatable scenarios, the animations focus on different themes of friendship, including isolation, belittling, honesty, independence, kindness, responsibility, respect, and equality.

By creating familiar, humorous scenarios with colorful, abstract, non-human characters, FableVision and One Love aim to help elementary-aged children understand the importance of communication and appropriate responses in healthy friendships.

Episode 2: Carnival FOMO

“I’m excited about this project because we had a diverse, inclusive design process to appeal to a wide range of children,” says Christina Kelly, Lead Artist at FableVision. “With the abstract, gender-neutral characters, we wanted kids to find personal relevance from the situations—maybe they’re crushes, maybe they’re friends. We also included subtle nods to diversity throughout the backgrounds, like adding a Pride flag in the cafeteria or a crutch in the bedroom. Through the designs, we hope that kids will connect to the videos and take away the messages about love.”

As a studio that seeks to promote inclusivity and love, FableVision is proud to partner with One Love to help children develop happy, healthy friendships. Read on for more information.

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A Closer Look Inside:

Episode 1
Topics covered: Isolation, Belittling, Honesty, Equality
A classic cafeteria conundrum—what happens when you want to sit with your best friend only, but your best friend wants to sit with a group? Zain and Amaru figure out how to communicate their feelings and where to sit so that everyone is happy.

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Episode 2
Topics covered: Volatility, Trust, Possessiveness, Independence
While playing video games, Ehko realizes that Kazu and Amaru went to the carnival without them, and they accuse Amaru of lying and having other friends. In the redo, Amaru has a chance to explain their perspective, and Kazu can think about how to respond.

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Episode 3
Topics covered: Intensity, Comfortable Pace, Betrayal, Kindness
What do you do when your friend invites you to spend a long weekend together, but you need some alone time? Zain and Amaru find the perfect balance for their weekend.

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Episode 4
Topics covered: Guilt, Fun, Deflecting Responsibility and Accepting Responsibility
Kazu finds an unflattering picture of themselves online that Zain posted, and accuses Ehko of sending that picture to Zain. Ehko rejects Kazu’s concerns by saying it’s not a big deal. In the redo, Ehko and Kazu work together to find a solution to this problem. 

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Episode 5
Topics covered: Sabotage, Manipulation, Respect, Healthy Conflict
When your and your friends’ opinions differ, it’s easy to yell your thoughts into a void without listening to your friend. Ehko and Amaru figure out how to discuss their perspectives on healthy eating and resolve their differences for a science project.

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To help identify what is love and what is not love, watch the episodes and participate in the workshops through One Love's Education Center.

FableVision Studios’ Five Core Design Principles

As a mission-based studio, FableVision is committed to creating positive, story-driven educational media that moves the world to a better place. As a part of that mission, we pride ourselves on our people-first design process, always thinking about the needs of our end-user, the context of their learning, and the impact of our product.

When we approach a new project, no matter the topic or goal, we always prioritize accessibility, engagement, and play. Whether we’re creating a game-based app, animation, museum interactive, website, Augmented Reality experience, or any other form of media, our core principles stay the same. 

Want to pick our brains about your next media project? Reach out! We’d love to chat. 

1. Education is for Everyone

First and foremost, FableVision believes that every person—no matter their age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status—has the right to a quality education. Therefore, the studio is committed to lowering barriers of access in educational communities, both in formal and informal learning spaces. Whether our end-user is an educator in Iowa, a preschooler in Maine, or a grandparent in Texas, we always ask ourselves three key design questions: Is this approachable? Is it relatable? Will it lead to learning, behavior change, or action?

2. Using Research-based Design to Create Safe Spaces to Learn, Explore, and Discover

Our design process and media are crafted to engage and impact audiences in all contexts—including consumer, classroom, family, and museum markets. We believe learning media should provide a safe space for learners to practice, experiment, fail, and grow from their mistakes. With the appropriate scaffolding, learners can reach their full potential, proving to their educators and themselves that anything is possible.

3. Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

FableVision Studios believes that representation matters. Whether a project uses human or non-human characters, takes place on Earth or an imaginary planet, or utilizes fantastical or magical elements as plot drivers, believable, relatable characters are critical. Media should present an accurate, inclusive reflection of the audience consuming it. In that spirit, FableVision takes pride in writing and designing diverse characters. We also take care to cast diverse voices when selecting talent for voice over.

4. “Designed for One, Beneficial for All”

In all our work, FableVision strives to maximize accessibility in ways that are seamless to the user experience. The studio has worked with The Perkins School for the Blind, the Helen Keller National Center, National Braille Press, and Bridge Multimedia, among many other partners committed to accessibility standards. In addition, we have incorporated Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in our work for many years, and we apply those principles in creative ways to ensure the interactive experience is appealing and engaging to a wide range of visitors.

5. Playful Learning for Any Content, Any Platform

No matter the learning area, engagement lies at the crossroads of vetted content and research-based design. We have created learning environments that teach social-emotional learning, literacy, STEM, financial literacy, substance use prevention, civics, and more. FableVision works to ensure that all learning experiences match the content, spark curiosity, and offer an open invitation to playful exploration.