Gary Vee Wants His New YouTube Show ‘VeeFriends’ To Help Kids Get ‘Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable’
The entrepreneur is teaching kids lessons.
The Veefriends Show Teaser Clip
This is a teaser video for the upcoming kids animation series called The Veefriends Show - based on the popular Veefriends collection of games and characters. The show launches September 30.
Fact checked by Sarah ScottFact checked by Sarah ScottBetter known to his legions of followers as "GaryVee," Gary Vaynerchuk is a high-energy internet personality, serial entrepreneur, six-time New York Times best selling author, and the driving force behind a forthcoming 2D-animated television series for kids, set to launch on YouTube Kids on September 30, 2024.He has lofty goals for the show titled VeeFriends.
GettyImages/Noam Galai/Stringer
"It's like Pokemon from a competitive standpoint, from a collectible standpoint, and from a cool standpoint," Vaynerchuk tells Parents. "And Sesame Street from an altruistic point of view, in that I believe we can have a positive deposit on the world."What does all of that mean exactly for the show's content and what can viewers expect? Here's what Vaynerchuk has to say.What Is 'VeeFriends'?Aimed at viewers aged 6 to 11, the show is produced by Moonbug Entertainment, the company behind Blippi and CoComelon. In partnership with Vaynerchuk's production company VaynerWatt, VeeFriends is his effort to change the world (not exactly an insignificant goal) and to inspire families to see things from a different perspective.He hopes to accomplish his goals through a show populated by relatable but larger-than-life characters who regularly set about tackling difficult or sensitive subjects. They engage in fun, action-packed battles taking place in an arena called the “VeeDome.” They battle out some of the major issues kids are dealing with today."There aren't any topics I don't want to cover," explains Vaynerchuk. “I want to get to all of them.”
Teaching Kids About FailureWhile VeeFriends will have the altruistic Sesame Street-style plans that Vaynerchuk has already outlined, the parent of two has additional motivations for creating a children's show. In particular, he wants to reshape how kids view the world, encouraging them to embrace the various challenges and defeats that occur in life and learn that failure is perfectly OK. In fact, failure is more than OK, Vaynerchuk stresses—it's often a critical step toward personal growth.But many parents, such as helicopter ones, often aren’t letting their kids fail."I believe that what has happened in modern parenting is that we are truly over-coddling children,” says Vaynerchuk. “And we're creating demonization of things that are not that serious. And so, one of the things I'm trying to do is get parenting, and the world, to meet in the middle."To illustrate his point, Vaynerchuk diverts to a real-life experience: The movement of offering participation trophies to all children in sports. This has stirred controversy, with some saying these trophies acknowledge effort and boost confidence, while others argue it doesn’t prepare them for the realities of life.Offering participation trophies has created a generation of kids who may not necessarily understand that there's "winning and losing" throughout life and these kids may not be prepared for real life, suggests Vaynerchuk.All of which brings Vaynerchuk back to the launch of VeeFriends and its deeper objectives, which include teaching kids that they need to learn how to be "comfortable with being uncomfortable." "There are episodes where the character just has to deal with it, where there is no happy ending," explains Vaynerchuk. "Instead, the episode ends with, 'Hey, you made a mistake and now you have to clean up your mess.' The end."In other words, goodbye to the warm and fuzzy happy endings that so often dominate children's programming. (Vaynerchuk's self-professed inspiration, Muppets creator Jim Henson, might be just a little taken aback by this proposed lack of happy ending.)
What To Know About the ‘VeeFriends’ CharactersIn addition to all of the life lessons already mentioned, VeeFriends episodes will feature a variety of characters who have names like Dialed-In Dog, Empathy Elephant, Dynamic Dinosaur, and Fearless Fairy. Additional characters include Perfect Persian Cat and Gracious Grizzly Bear.These names were deliberately chosen to further reinforce the show's storyline messaging and overall mission. "I wanted to create alliterations that were really easy to understand, but that also felt warm, and maybe potentially challenge the collective wisdom," explains Vaynerchuk.Take the mascot of the show for example, which is "the very very very lucky black cat." As most of us are taught, black cats are anything but lucky. But not in the world of VeeFriends. Other characters will similarly challenge conventional wisdom and what many of us have been taught."The Perfect Persian Cat is literally perfect, but then when you dig into her journey, you realize that some of her perfection is based on insecurity," says Vaynerchuk. "For Dialed-In Dog, being dialed in and focused is amazing, but if you go too far, you might miss what's going on around you."
If you haven't gotten the point by now, VeeFriends will be all about looking at the world and real-life experience from a different angle. And ideally, using that alternative perspective to help shape a child's emotional development and the way parents approach raising children."My number one goal is to entertain children and subconsciously seep in some ideas," says Vaynerchuk. "But my goal is also to actually have a parent, every episode, be affected in how they're parenting because of a line they heard in the show."And if, in the process of pursuing this noble journey in children's programming, Vaynerchuk manages to create an empire on par with that of the legendary Jim Henson? Well, he's alright with that too. In fact, Vaynerchuk says he'd be lying if he were to deny wanting to achieve such a goal."Why wouldn’t I want to try to build a Disney or Pokemon?" concludes Vaynerchuk. "I don’t know if I will, but boy am I gonna try. It's the process of trying; that's the exciting part." For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter! Read the original article on Parents.
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