Second Nurture – 18 Months (Case Study)

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Can tearing up vintage pregnancy books rewrite the definition of family? This Second Nurture – 18 Months (Case Study) unpacks how Klick Health and Zombie Studio turned a miraculous NYC subway adoption into a tactile stop-motion masterpiece – challenging biological family stigmas worldwide.

Background

Across many cultures and legal systems, the dominant societal blueprint for a “traditional” family remains narrowly anchored to biological birth. This deeply ingrained bias continues to fuel silent stigma, bureaucratic friction, and social marginalization for children in the foster care system and the nontraditional or LGBTQ+ parents seeking to adopt them. When biological lineage is treated as the only “authentic” path to parenthood, thousands of waiting children are left behind.

Conceptualized by agency Klick Health for the non-profit organization Second Nurture: Every Child Deserves a Family and a Community (founded by Rabbi Susan Silverman), the six-minute short film 18 Months sets out to dismantle these outdated perceptions. By physically repurposing the pages of mid-century pregnancy manuals – artifacts that historically enforced rigid, heteronormative family ideals – the campaign exposes just how obsolete those conventions have become.

Through an intimate, real-life portrait of non-biological parenthood, 18 Months affirms that love, kinship, and belonging are forged through commitment rather than DNA. Serving as both an emotional tribute and a cultural call to action, the initiative seeks to replace adoption stigma with community openness – empowering families to take shape in all their diverse forms so every child can grow up in a permanent, loving home.

18 Months affirms that love, kinship, and belonging are forged through commitment rather than DNA

Creative Idea

18 Months chronicles the extraordinary true story of Danny Stewart (a social worker and Second Nurture board member) and his husband, Pete Mercurio. On August 28, 2000, Danny discovered an abandoned newborn baby inside a New York City subway station. What followed was a grueling, nine-month emotional, media, and legal odyssey for Danny and Pete to officially adopt their son, Kevin – a timeline that mirrored a second nine-month human gestation, proving that for adoptive parents, bringing a child into a family can take 18 months.

To bring this delicate narrative to life without the literal constraints of live-action reenactment, the Second Nurture 18 Months creative team turned to tactile mixed-media animation. Using handcrafted puppets, layered paper textures, and frame-by-frame 2D animation, the film physically builds its stop-motion environments out of torn pages from vintage 1950s and 1960s pregnancy guides. By literally reshaping archaic parenting manuals into the backdrop of a modern two-dad adoption story, the craft itself becomes the metaphor – rewriting history page by page to champion an inclusive vision of parenthood.

18 Months chronicles the extraordinary true story of Danny Stewart and his husband, Pete Mercurio

Insights & Strategy

The strategic foundation of the Second Nurture – 18 Months (Case Study) stemmed from a potent cultural tension: while modern society has evolved, foundational storytelling around expectant parenthood remains monopolized by biological pregnancy tropes.

Historical research into mid-century pregnancy and child-rearing literature revealed just how pervasively these texts codified the nuclear, biological archetype into public consciousness. Rather than merely criticizing those outdated chapters, Klick Health’s strategy subverted them – using the physical pages of old pregnancy books as the raw canvas to construct a new narrative.

By framing Danny, Pete, and Kevin’s legal struggle as a metaphorical pregnancy – complete with anxiety dreams of loss, bureaucratic ultrasounds, and courtroom contractions – the strategy bridged the empathy gap between biological and adoptive parents. Furthermore, the opening sequence tenderly honors Kevin’s biological mother as she searches for a safe place to leave her infant, ensuring the narrative removes shame from every corner of the adoption triad while rallying viewers to support Second Nurture’s community-based foster and adoption model.

Execution

Produced by Zombie Studio (co-directed by Paulo Garcia and Natalia Gouvea, with original music and sound design by Jamute), the six-minute film was animated by Oscar- and BAFTA-winning stop-motion directors Thiago Calçado and Matias Liebrecht.

Every frame was engineered through an intricate marriage of analog handmade artistry and subtle digital craft:

Subversive Paper Stagecraft: Entire New York City subway platforms, domestic interiors, and towering courtrooms were hand-sculpted from torn, folded, and layered pages of vintage pregnancy books – allowing obsolete text diagrams and clinical illustrations to remain faintly visible beneath the characters’ feet.
Tactile Emotional Abstraction: Opting for fragile, handcrafted stop-motion puppets paired with expressive 2D facial animation imbued the film with a timeless, universal vulnerability. Rather than focusing on what Danny and Pete looked like in real life, the textured animation invited viewers to feel their internal hope, fear, and unconditional love.
Strategic Community Rollout: Launched in June 2025 ahead of Father’s Day – marking the 25th anniversary of Kevin’s discovery – the film debuted across 18monthsfilm.com and Second Nurture’s digital ecosystem, supported by targeted partner screenings and high-profile cultural amplification.

Results

The Second Nurture – 18 Months (Case Study) resonated deeply across both the global creative industry and grassroots parenting communities, elevating Second Nurture into a leading voice for inclusive family advocacy:

High-Profile Cultural Amplification: Following exclusive previews with philanthropic partners and donors, the film spread rapidly across social platforms – boosted significantly by world-renowned comedian Sarah Silverman (sister of Second Nurture founder Susan Silverman), who shared the work directly with her audience of over two million followers.
Deepened Community & Donor Engagement: The campaign drove a substantial surge in digital engagement for Second Nurture, sparking stigma-free dialogue across parenting, foster care, and LGBTQ+ advocacy networks regarding the true definition of family.
Global Creative & Craft Acclaim: Recognized globally as a tour de force in purpose-driven animation, 18 Months earned prestigious honors across top international shows, including Cannes Lions 2025 (Film Craft – Animation), The Clio Awards, and the AICP Awards.