Last year The Rainbow Project, an organization dedicated to “queer storytelling in order to produce positive mirroring for a new generation,” launched the inaugural Velma Awards to spotlight exceptional LGBTQ+ representation in kids and family programming, with the mission of celebrating and elevating diverse and inclusive queer stories that resonate with LGBTQ+ and allied families alike. The organization has announced the Velma Awards will return again this year. Details of the categories and winners for the second annual Velmas will be announced December 9th at 8am PST.
The Velmas is the flagship initiative of the aforementioned organization The Rainbow Project, founded in 2024 that’s committed to acknowledging and amplifying the trailblazing creators and storytellers who push the boundaries of queer storytelling in children’s media. The mission of The Rainbow Project is to offer positive, authentic mirroring for young LGBTQ+ audiences, empowering them to see themselves represented and celebrated on screen. The Rainbow Project and The Velmas are the brainchild of industry veterans Chris Nee and Kristi Reed, along with Jeremy Blacklow, who first connected in 2017 through their work on GLAAD’s Kids & Family Advisory Council.
Once again, The Velmas will feature categories that recognize both established series and emerging content across platforms, including animated and live-action programs, organized by content aimed at children, tweens, teens, and young adults. The Velmas is unique in the awards space by being one of the first awards series to have no nominees – it only recognizes winners for excellence in each category. 2024 Winners
And this year The Rainbow Project is proud to launch a first-of-its-kind archive dedicated to preserving the real, behind-the-scenes stories of how queer narratives made it through the studio system. These accounts—told directly by creators and producers to their peers—offer honest, unfiltered insight into the battles, breakthroughs, and quiet acts of resistance that shaped these projects. This archive exists as both a record and a lifeline, giving any brave creator fighting for LGBTQ+ storylines a place to find guidance, solidarity, and proof that persistence can prevail. It’s a resource built by our community, for our community, to ensure these stories are never lost or erased.
In its first year, the team started small, soliciting recommendations of deserving nominees from their extensive Rolodex of queer kids programming creators. While there will be no ceremony for the first or second years of The Velmas, The Rainbow Project intends to expand its reach in subsequent years.
This year, the second annual Velma Awards by The Rainbow Project aren’t simply celebratory — they are urgent. They are a protest, a spotlight, and a promise that children’s media can, and must, do better. “The amount of harm this erasure of representation does to queer youth is horrifying” said JP Karliak, founder of Queer Vox, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQIA+ voice actors in the entertainment industry. “It’s incredibly dispiriting for queer voice actors as well. The same trans and nonbinary talent that studios fell all over themselves to cast not even five years ago have now been dropped like hot rocks. Partly due to a lack of queer roles, but also a lack of imagination.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by The Rainbow Project co-founder Kristi Reed who said:
“This year, The Rainbow Project isn’t just important — it’s essential. We’re watching LGBTQ+ stories quietly disappear from children’s content, and that loss has real impact on young viewers. Our mission is to safeguard visibility, belonging, and truth in the stories that shape kids’ lives. No child should ever have their story erased.”
Jeremy Blacklow, another co-founder of The Rainbow Project, added:
“It’s an exciting time for the entertainment industry, but it’s also quite a transitional and scary time. Since the beginning of this year with this current administration we have witnessed a pullback on queer stories and characters on television and streaming services. Whereas in 2024 we had a plethora of honorees, this year we find our numbers basically cut in half. Rather than retreat, we need to push forward and remind the industry not to be scared of great LGBTQ+ characters and storytelling.”
Chris Nee, another co-founder of The Rainbow Project, offered the following:
“We know that every storyline you see with an LGBTQ+ positive narrative for kids is the end result of a battle that someone waged on behalf of the queer youth under attack in this country. It was always hard to get these storylines on the air, but now it’s near impossible. It only happens when someone behind the scenes has passionately championed it. The Velmas were created to passionately champion all of those brave creators fighting this fight, and remind them that what they’re doing is making a difference.”
In the past year, the narrowing of queer visibility in children’s media has reached alarming proportions. According to the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media’s See Jane 2024 report, only 0.8 % of characters in popular children’s television programming in 2023 were LGBTQIA+ — down from 1.0 % in 2022 — and notably, there were no LGBTQIA+ characters in leading or minor roles in that period. Geena Davis Institute
Meanwhile, the 2025 See Jane report found that in new children’s programming for 2024, only 1.5% of all characters were LGBTQIA+, and just 1.4 % of lead characters identified as LGBTQIA+. Geena Davis Institute+1
At the same time, in its most recent Studio Responsibility Index report GLAAD revealed that in 2024, only two animated/family films out of the total tracked releases were LGBTQ-inclusive, representing roughly 8% of the category. This is part of an overall trend of decreased representation of LGBTQ+ characters on TV. In its most recent 2024-25 Where We Are On TV report, GLAAD noted that, “over 200 (41%) of the LGBTQ characters counted this year will not be returning due to series cancellations, endings, or limited series format.” GLAAD, GLAAD’s Representation in Kids & Family Programming section
Collectively, these numbers point to a clear backwards‐slide in representation just as children’s media should be expanding inclusion—not shrinking it. The eligible winners for the 2025 Velma Awards are down nearly 40 percent from 2024.
The effects of this erasure are far from symbolic: when children don’t see themselves, their families, or their identities reflected in the stories they consume, the consequences ripple across self-esteem, belonging, and emotional well-being. As media researchers emphasize, inclusive characters are not just “nice to have” — they communicate to young viewers that, “you matter, you exist, you are part of the world.” With only a slender handful of LGBTQIA+ characters in children’s media, the industry risks sending a message of invisibility to queer kids and their siblings, classmates, and families. Indeed, studies show that for LGBTQ+ youth, the absence of visible representation correlates with higher feelings of isolation and internalized stigma. arXiv
The Rainbow Project and The Velmas are committed to furthering the mission of inclusivity in media, ensuring that LGBTQ+ youth see themselves reflected in their favorite series. The team’s collective experience in media advocacy, entertainment, and children’s programming uniquely positions them to lead this new initiative.
For more information about The Rainbow Project and The Velmas, visit www.therainbowproject.tv.
ABOUT THE RAINBOW PROJECT
The Rainbow Project was born from the need to celebrate and elevate LGBTQ+ representation in children’s media. Its mission is to acknowledge the brave creators who push the boundaries of queer storytelling to produce positive mirroring for a new generation. Through advocacy, programming, and recognition, The Rainbow Project works to ensure that LGBTQ+ children and families are seen, heard, and celebrated in the media they consume.
ABOUT CHRIS NEE
Chris Nee is a writer and producer, known for her trailblazing work in children’s media. A five-time NAACP Award winner and three-time Emmy Award-winner, Nee is the creator and executive producer of the Peabody Award winning Doc McStuffins for Disney Junior and the hit animated series Vampirina. In 2018, she founded Laughing Wild Productions and signed a multiyear deal with Netflix, where she created and executive produced series including Ridley Jones, Ada Twist, Scientist, and We the People. Both Ada Twist and We the People were co-produced with the Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, and both won Emmys for best series in their respective categories. Nee has received twenty Emmy nominations over her career and is widely recognized for her contributions to children’s television, including her work on Spirit Rangers, which received seven Emmy nominations in 2023. She is also an advocate for diversity and inclusivity in children’s programming. Nee’s work has attracted top voice talent and her series have featured voices from Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Wanda Sykes, Audra McDonald, and more. Nee is the co-bookwriter and co-lyricist on the musical Finn which premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2024 and subsequently had its tour cancelled by the President.
ABOUT KRISTI REED
Kristi Reed is an Emmy Award-winning casting and voice director in the animation industry. She is widely recognized for her advocacy for greater inclusivity of queer characters in children’s programming. Reed was the casting and voice director for Steven Universe, the first animated series to win a GLAAD Award, and she served as voice director for Kipo & The Age of the Wonderbeasts, which featured the first animated all-ages character to say, “I’m gay.” Reed also voice-directed DeadEnd: Paranormal Park, which introduced the first transgender lead character in an all-ages animated series. She is a founding member of GLAAD’s Kids and Family Advisory Council and currently directs series for Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation, Disney+, Nickelodeon, and Sony Pictures Animation.
ABOUT JEREMY BLACKLOW
Jeremy Blacklow is a media and entertainment executive with over 25 years of
experience focusing on increasing the representation of marginalized communities in the entertainment industry. He began his career at NBC News’ TODAY show and has worked for CNN, NBCU’s Access Hollywood, Yahoo!, and Amazon MGM Studios. From 2017 to 2022, Blacklow served as the Director of Entertainment Media at GLAAD, where he helped establish and run the Kids & Family Advisory Council and played a key role in the creation of the Kids & Family and Children’s Programming categories for the GLAAD Media Awards
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