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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
