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.

December FableFriday: CAST’s Steve Nordmark, Director of Business Development, and Cassandra Sell, Senior Interaction Designer

With the growing trend of personalization in education and educational design, people are realizing that personalization extends beyond technology. While technology is an important part of addressing the needs of all types of learners, equity and inclusion are becoming crucial to building and designing whole education systems. CAST, an education nonprofit research and development organization, is addressing this by not only providing physical access to supports through technology but also supporting personalization across all design domains, focusing on accessibility and usability.

Partnership and cooperation is at the forefront of CAST’s work. “The more we continuously improve inclusive communication, trust, and foster an iterative mindset, the more we can put our common goals at the forefront and real people at the heart of the work to make continuous barrier-busting progress,” explains Cassandra Sell, the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST.

CAST, through their Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and other learning platforms, works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals. FableVision worked with CAST on their reading and reading comprehension platform, Udio. The online platform serves “as both an intervention and a context for conducting research” and is a holistic approach to learning resources for middle school students. 

The UDL framework is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. “Ultimately, it comes down to proactively and intentionally designing for learner variability in order to reduce barriers in the learning experience,” says Steve Nordmark, CAST’s Director of Business Development. “That’s what UDL is all about. This is at the heart of how CAST designs solutions.”

This intentionality also serves as the basis for how they design, develop, and maintain Learning Designed, an online learning platform that provides a supportive and collaborative community for educators and learners. To explain the mission of Learning Designed, FableVision designed a one-minute animated explainer video, which is now live on the website. In our December FableFriday, we sat down with Cassandra and Steve to learn more about CAST’s research platforms, the Learning Designed community, and their educator and learner-focused projects. 

Tell us about CAST and your roles there!
Steve: CAST is a nonprofit organization that believes learning should have no limits. We strive to help meet the needs of every learner, at any age, in any learning environment. We created the UDL framework over 20 years ago. It remains one of our core levers of change to make education equitable, inclusive, and transformative for everyone.

As the Director of Business Development at CAST, I focus on building strategic partnerships throughout the global education field to advance the adoption and implementation of UDL. This includes fostering strategic growth opportunities for CAST's products, consultancy services, and membership services, including:

1. Assisting publishers, technology firms, and other constituents to infuse their products with inclusive best practices.

2. Assisting federal, private, state, and local education agencies to identify, acquire, and use inclusive and responsive products and services.

Advancing quality UDL implementation through the promotion and implementation of Learning Designed and affiliated products and services.

Cassandra: I’ve been the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST for four years and I've been honored to contribute to a variety of awesome projects and initiatives within our organization. I work with our interdisciplinary teams in design and development, applied research, and professional learning. I also collaborate with others across the organization, supporting CAST with art direction and communications design as we find more opportunities to share who we are and what we do with the world and bring more of the world into CAST’s work. We try to hold ourselves up to a standard of constant and deliberate iteration around best practices for engaging the field and reaching beyond.

How did you start working at CAST, and what drew you to the organization?
Steve: I’ve been in educational product research and development for over 25 years. I always admired CAST’s work, especially the development and promotion of UDL, since I first encountered them in 2002. About six years ago, I became more directly involved with building awareness, adoption, and implementation of UDL throughout the global education industry. In 2016, I partnered directly with CAST to build Learning Designed, and global standards for UDL credentials and certifications for people, products, and schools. Then, at the beginning of 2019, when given the option to join CAST full time, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Cassandra: I came to CAST in 2015 from WGBH Digital where I was the lead digital designer on a handful of robust websites and experiences for PBS national brands, such as Masterpiece and Antiques Roadshow. One of my design mentors mentioned her hope to build a design team at CAST, which I had not heard of at the time. As I got to know CAST and UDL, I saw so much kinship in how we applied design thinking and got super nerdy about the process. I also saw what intentional and goal-oriented collaboration could look like in the service of nothing less than all learners. I couldn’t pass up the chance to join a team of people so dedicated to learning and raising the bar for each other every day. 

What is “Universal Design for Learning,” and in what ways does CAST continue to lead the national conversation around UDL? 
Cassandra: Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. Based on scientific insights into how people learn and decades-long observations about what works in the classroom, UDL synthesizes a number of best practices into a clear framework to address the needs of all learners at all levels.

In the 25 years since CAST coined and defined the term, UDL has provided leadership to a growing, global field. We research and develop creative solutions to education’s thorniest challenges, usually in partnership with major research universities, R&D organizations, and companies. We work closely with educators at all levels from California to New Hampshire to improve the implementation of UDL’s best practices. We have also authored comprehensive guidelines for implementation, and UDL is endorsed by all the major federal education laws covering children and adult learners in formal and informal learning environments. Recently, CAST partnered with the UDL-IRN, an international research and implementation network, to scale up UDL and launch a credentialing and certification process. We’re busy!

What is Learning Designed? How does being a part of the Learning Designed community impact educators and learners on the individual, school, and district levels?
Steve: The animated video that FableVision helped us create really explains Learning Designed the best. FableVision brought our words to life. In summary, Learning Designed is a state-of-the-art, online learning platform for professional learning and collaboration that provides personalized experiences for educators in a supportive community. Learning Designed harnesses the evidence-based UDL framework to support educators in designing more effective learning environments and experiences for all learners. Ultimately, educators can better serve all types of students—especially students with learning disabilities, learning and attention issues, those suffering the effects of trauma, those who are often not served well by the system due to gender, race, language, class, culture—at scale.

How can educators best integrate the research of CAST and Learning Designed into their classrooms?
Steve: We view everything CAST works on as an opportunity to integrate research into educator practice, from technical assistance on accessibility and inclusion to innovative educational product R&D, to professional learning, to our consulting work, to Learning Designed. Research is embedded in all our work, and our research is used to empower educators and educational leaders to better design and implement learning experiences for all learners.

Learning Designed contains links to a variety of research-based resources for educators, including:

1. Universal Design for Learning Theory and Practice: a well-known resource book that provides a comprehensive research background on the UDL framework.

2. UDL and the Learning Brain: a white paper that provides a summary of cognitive neuroscience research within UDL and how it can be used to inform the design of environments that support all learners.

CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice—and change students’ lives—through UDL. Also, CAST Professional Learning partners directly with educators, teachers, administrators, and organizations to enhance their professional understanding of UDL.

What are the biggest difficulties when making education accessible, and how do you strive to overcome them?
Steve: Providing accessible learning for every learner requires an intentional and proactive design of many aspects of accessibility and usability, such as cognitive, developmental, cultural, etc. We must actively consider all learner variabilities to reduce barriers in the learning experience.

Cassandra: As a designer, I enjoy helping individuals designing in isolation to become problem-solving, collaborative teams. With all members’ skills and perspectives, we can improve access to education and move us all forward. Listening to, earning, and seeking honest feedback from all learners and other stakeholders is key - and so is agreeing on what to do with that feedback. It’s challenging, but satisfying when teams nail it.

You worked with FableVision in 2016 on a website for Udio, CAST’s online literacy intervention and research context. What’s happening with Udio now?
Cassandra: The Udio project was a fantastic opportunity to try out some new ideas we’d been working on, including data visualization and supporting student/teacher decision-making. One of the great things about CAST is that the work we do on each project always influences our future work. The ideas we had and the things we learned with Udio are now present in our CISL project as we think about accessible digital learning environments, our digital science notebook project, and many of our other design, development, and applied research projects. The concepts and ideas also make their way into our professional learning and publishing offerings.

We know that collaboration and user-testing are important, especially in the education field. How does CAST form and strengthen strategic partnerships, and how do you ensure that your audience—educators and learners—are at the forefront of all your decisions?
Steve: Collaboration and partnership are really important to our work. CAST is always seeking and working directly with partners who share our passion for increasing equity and inclusion in learning. We have partnerships with schools, districts, states, universities, government agencies, research organizations, companies, and foundations to explore challenging questions in education. We collaborate with these organizations due to their representation of the learners we care about. We often remind ourselves, “nothing about us without us,” to highlight the importance of having authentic relationships with people we design for and with on our projects. 

For example, CAST is currently partnering with career and technical education schools, industry partners, and colleges to produce prototype career exploration modules that showcase the varied pathways into these new industries. One example is our partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) and several Local Education Agencies (Districts and County Offices) across central and northern California. SCCOE and the partner education agencies are using Learning Designed to enhance and support the state-funded California 1: Highway to Success for ALL initiative to address the equity needs of all students. 

Another example is our partnership with SRI International and the Inclusive Design Research Centre. Together, we are exploring and creating tools to ensure that K-12 students with disabilities receive engaging, high-quality, accessible digital learning materials, especially open education resources (OERs). This project, called the Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL), is actively seeking co-design and beta testing partnerships with schools and students who can help strengthen the quality and effectiveness of the software designs.

Fun Facts About Steve & Cassandra

Skill you’d most like to learn:
Steve: Playing guitar.
Cassandra: Playing the drums—let’s start a band, Steve!

Quote you live your life by:
Steve: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Ghandi
Cassandra: I have a new favorite every week. The communications team always comes across words of inspiration we want to share with the world. Right now it is, “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not” by Nicholas Kristof. But my go-to usually is “... the world owes me nothing, and we owe each other the world” from Ani DiFranco’s song, “Joyful Girl.” 

Favorite educational game:
Steve: I love word puzzles and really enjoy the Wordbubbles and Wordscapes apps.
Cassandra: I’m not sure if it counts but my brother and I got really into history, geography, and strategy by playing Age of Empires together as kids. That’s probably an all-time favorite. 

Ultimate comfort food:
Steve: I could eat pizza every day, and I cannot say no to strawberry Twizzlers.
Cassandra: My husband has been making the most amazing soups lately, so at the moment it might be a rich soup —with warm, fresh, crusty bread. 

Favorite winter activity:
Steve: Downhill skiing. I would love to be able to enjoy it every winter.
Cassandra: Anything that combines being crafty with my family, a roaring fire, and the perfect blanket.

November FableFriday: Olubunmi Mia Olufemi, Children’s Programming Producer at WGBH

For Olubunmi Mia Olufemi, inclusivity is not just an important concept, it’s a crucial and integral part of every project, meeting, and decision as a children’s programming producer at WGBH. As a producer for Molly of Denali, the first nationally-distributed children’s television series to star an Indigenous lead, Mia uses her voice to not only keep the production schedule and budget on track, but also to ensure that the right people and experiences are included and considered in every aspect of creating the show. 

“Being the only person in the room who looks like me is not a new experience,” shares Mia. “Being the only person in the room who looks like me and has a voice in how a project is run, is.”

Mia and her team work with a team of Alaska Native advisors to inform how they approach character design, backgrounds, script, plot, and more. Though these conversations surrounding race, ethnicity, gender, and culture can be challenging at times, Mia and the WGBH team know that the time and money put in is worth it to ensure that the project is authentic and the teams are inclusive. And this is something that Mia carries with her in every project she is a part of. “I know I have to throw myself into each project head, shoulders, feet, and all, otherwise I won’t have the passion, belief, and love I need to advocate for it, work hard for it, sacrifice for it, and proudly promote it,” says Mia. “And a huge part of building a project to believe in is not being afraid to get in there and do the work.”

This FableFriday, we spoke to Mia about her personal and professional journey, how the Molly of Denali team keeps in mind the real experiences of Alaska Natives when creating the show, and how companies and organizations can navigate conversations about representation and inclusivity. 

Mia in Haiti in 1996 with a Goosebumps book. She always had a book somewhere on her.

You worked in consulting for six years before entering the children’s media industry. What initially attracted you to the industry, and what made you stay for another six years since then?
I’ve always loved children’s media, books in particular. My parents read to me every night when I was little until I could “read” my favorites to myself from memory. Later, I read books to my brother, and devoured the boxes of books my aunt, who worked at Scholastic at the time, would send me. Growing up, I took a book everywhere I went: parties, concerts, games, you name it. After college, I knew I wanted to become a young adult fiction editor, so that I could help bring wonderful stories to other kids who liked to bury themselves in books like I did.

I went to Emerson for my master’s after two years of working in consulting to get my degree in publishing, literature, and writing. A mentor, Gary Hill, offered me a job, and then kept me flush with part-time work when I eventually made my way back to Boston to work an editorial job for a medically inclined publishing resource. 

About a year into that, I was itching to get back into a creative field. I was mostly looking for editorial jobs, but by chance, I saw WGBH was hiring a production assistant for Arthur. I had no production experience, but my younger brother and I had grown up on the show and loved it. And I had all the other skills a PA might need (I was detail-oriented, organized, able to juggle multiple tasks, and I was a decent writer), so I took a leap and applied. When I checked back in with Carol Greenwald (Executive Producer of Arthur, Curious George, etc.) about the status of my application, she told me they had hired someone else with more experience. BUT, she liked me and would offer me a part-time gig three days a week if I wanted to take it. I did. 

Since then I’ve worked on several projects: Arthur, Curious George, Martha Speaks, Sara Solves It, Design Squad Global, The Ruff Ruffman Show, and Molly of Denali. The work of making educational kids show is incredibly challenging and stressful, but it’s also meaningful in a tangible way. In a “you taught me how to read/inspired me to become an engineer/taught me to be proud of who I am” kind of way. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.

IMAGE CREDIT: Molly of Denali, Trademark/Copyright 2019 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.

How has your role grown and evolved at WGBH since you began? 
Because I started off part-time, I helped out in little ways on all our shows. I’d take animation notes, help gather clips for marketing, go on live action shoots and do PA field work, etc. I’d sit quietly in team meetings, transcribing minutes as fast as I could while also trying to take everything in. I had no clue what a producer did before I started working there. Now I see we do everything: from getting a show idea created and funded, to hiring the writers and animation company, to overseeing the distribution and marketing of it, as well as the creation of all ancillary materials associated with the show. As a producer on Molly of Denali, I’m now the one leading team meetings. I oversee junior team members and give animation notes. I help hire the writers and advisors, and work closely with the animators to make sure our shows are delivered to PBS on time and up to spec. I review marketing assets to make sure they stay on brand and true to our show. I oversee all live action interstitial production and review our digital games. I have a voice in the direction the show takes, strategically, creatively, and philosophically. Three years into Molly, all of my previous experiences are informing the development of my own children’s television show. It’s been quite a hike, and I’ve still got a long way to go.

What is Molly of Denali?
Molly of Denali is an animated television series for kids ages 4-8 that features the story of Molly Mabray, a gregarious 10-year-old girl who runs the Denali Trading Post with her parents in the village of Qyah (which means “community” in the Dena’ina Athabascan language). With her dog Suki and best friends Tooey and Trini, Molly adventures through picturesque Alaska on dogsled, snowshoe, ATV, bush plane, canoe, and foot. Along the way, she solves problems using knowledge from her Elders, as well as books, maps, apps, and other informational texts. Through her vlog, she shares knowledge about herself, her adventures, and Alaska Native values, such as honoring your Elders, knowing who you are, and sharing what you have. 

Molly is also a multi-platform series, with games, apps, a podcast, books, digital teaching tools, and lesson plans, printable family activities, and a rural educational outreach initiative.

IMAGE CREDIT: Molly of Denali, Trademark/Copyright 2019 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.

Sydney Isaacs working on totem pole design.

Core Alaska Native Advisory Group. Pictured from left to right: Dewey Kk'ołeyo Hoffman, Rochelle Adams, Elder Luke Titus (seated), Adeline P. Raboff. Also pictured, Creative Producer Princess Daazhraii Johnson (far right).

We know that representation matters and that the producers of Molly of Denali partnered with Alaskan advisors to consider all aspects of real experiences of Alaska Natives in the show. Can you share an example of when you worked with your team of advisors to accurately and authentically portray Native Alaskans’ lives or traditions?
Molly of Denali is a partnership with Alaska Native people. Who Molly is, what she wears, where she lives, what adventures she has, the things in her room, the people she meets, all of these decisions were made together by the WGBH producers and cultural advisors. There are so many examples of this partnership I could talk about, but there are two I’ll mention as I think they get to the complexity of what it means to work on an inclusive production like Molly.

The first is about a story we did around totem poles. In “Tale of a Totem,” Molly heads down to Sitka in southeast Alaska to visit her cousin and attend her first totem pole raising. It was a story idea we had passed on earlier that I suggested we revisit after hiring our production assistant Sydney Isaacs. A Tlingit Alaska Native, Sydney is a talented artist and an apprentice totem pole carver who studied under a master carver in her hometown of Klawock, Alaska. She served as this script’s cultural advisor, reviewing every draft. She educated us about the different purposes of totem poles, how some were created to preserve the stories of the Tlingit through the ages. She steered our well-meaning script writers away from using a sacred story belonging to a group of Haida people that the authors had found on their own. And when the time came to animate the episode, she designed the totem pole Randall and his community raised with the blessing of her master carver, gifting the series with a special story of its own. 

The second example I’d like to share is about a story we “killed.” One of our writers wanted to do a script on a set of bear cubs that end up in Molly’s village. We were cautious about this to start, because bears can be very dangerous. But we decided to move forward because we thought it might be interesting for Molly to help with an animal rescue by observing the cubs and taking notes from afar for wildlife rangers who would eventually get them back into the wild. Our Creative Producer Princess Daazhraii Johnson had some slight misgivings about the story, and when she shared it with our Advisory Group, she found that she had good reason. The Koyukon people have a complex set of protocols around interacting with bears, much of which is specific to gender. For Molly to interact with bears in this way, much less engage them, would be incredibly taboo. From what I understood from Princess, this was not a taboo that her group, the Neets'aii Gwich'in, share. 

It was a great reminder of a few things. The first is that dominant culture norms are very different from Alaska Native norms. The second is that, although the Koyukon and Neets'aii Gwich'in are neighbors and share some cultural similarities, like their respect for the land and animals, they are different. And the third was that WGBH was right in thinking that we could not make this show without Alaska Native people at the helm beside us.

Three main kid characters of Molly of Denali, Molly, Tooey, and Trini.

How do you navigate conversations around representation when balancing all aspects of production, from timelines and budgets to creative decisions like landscapes, character design, and native language?
It was difficult finding my voice and asserting it in a space where it was not welcome at certain points in time. It was difficult learning that I had a right to ask questions born out of my identity as a woman of color. That the three main kid characters on our show, Molly, Tooey, and Trini, are all children of color is due to my finding the courage to question our team’s choices and notions around representation, race, and ethnicity. That Molly is voiced by a talented young actress who is Tlingit Alaska Native and Muckleshoot is in large part because my team and I knew from the very beginning that if we were going to make this show work, we would have to cast an Alaska Native child. We looked for her everywhere. Our animation partners, Atomic Cartoons, were instrumental in this, researching local theater groups, putting out calls for auditions on First Nations radio stations, and contacting tribal offices. The search for Sovereign was long and cost the project a lot of time and money. And it was one of the best decisions we’ve made to date.

I would tell media companies that the best way to navigate conversations around representation and balance all aspects of production is to be inclusive, not just diverse. Inclusivity demands a level of effort way beyond that of diversity. All creators of children’s media should have teams that are inclusive. And if you are going to make a show about a group of people of a certain race/ethnicity, those people must be in the room. They must participate in the conversations that decide the budget and inform the project timelines among other things.

Molly of Denali is a truly transmedia property. Children can access games, podcasts, and classroom interactives on multiple platforms. How do all these media components complement each other, and what strategy decisions did you make when thinking about dissemination and reaching the biggest audience possible?
Because we are a PBS KIDS show, it was planned from the start that we would premiere with a certain amount of episodes along with a suite of digital games and mobile apps. WGBH has been at the front of the pack as far as seeking out opportunities to pair with our shows, like TV tie in books, Alexa skills properties, and educational outreach materials for families and teachers. We try to reach our audience of children, families and educators by giving them a number of ways to engage with our shows at every level we possibly can. But the Molly of Denali podcast was a first. 

This opportunity was proposed by our sponsorship team and our partners at PRX. We weren’t quite sure what it would lead to, but Carol Greenwald, our Head of Children’s Podcast Strategy Priya Desai, and the Managing Producer of Podcasts at WGBH Nina Porzucki saw something special. They linked up with the talented founders of GenZ Media, who have been wildly successful at creating podcasts for children, and brainstormed a new podcast idea, a standalone prequel to an animated television series yet to be released. We rolled out the episodes in the weeks leading up to the premiere as a content teaser for folks to latch on to and get them excited about the upcoming television series. The experiment was a success, garnering millions of streams and downloads, and a following so strong that we received comments on social media to the effect of “Did you know the podcast also has a related television series?” We are now hoping to release a second season.

How do you work through writer’s block, and where do you get your creative inspiration?
I like to write in the morning. I’m one of those producers that will often wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that I like to jot down, so when I wake up (and drink my coffee), my mind is fresh, unencumbered by other things, and ready to work. I draw inspiration from everything I absorb of interest to me: other shows, life, my family’s stories, things I see on Instagram, etc. Anything can serve as good story fodder. 

We hear you are a big fan of cooking. What is your signature dish, and how does cooking, along with other activities, balance your career?
I think I’m more of a fan of eating good cooking than cooking myself, but I do like to try things from time to time. My mother is from Haiti and my dad is from Nigeria, so I’m always proud when I can recreate a dish I grew up with. I’ve often used cooking as a break from work. As much fun as work can be, it can also be all-consuming, so I try to unplug completely on the weekends.

Fun Facts about Mia:

Favorite cartoon character: Pucca.

Current book on your nightstand: There There by Tommy Orange.

Special talent no one knows you have: I played the french horn and flute in high school. 

Favorite winter activity: Holiday dinners with my large family. We laugh, eat, joke, play games. It’s a blast! 

Which movie, TV series, or book character are you most similar to? Too many to name.

Your vice: Earrings and jewelry. I just came back from New Orleans with a wild set of earrings made a Frida Kahlo pin made with multicolored vinyl. I can’t get enough!