Behind the Scenes of Gabby’s Dollhouse 

Gabby’s Dollhouse returned to Netflix on February 17 with an 11th season full of new adventures. This season, the characters delve into a new room in the dollhouse—a nursery room called the Kitty Care Ear, a place to love and nurture little kitties.

Introducing the Kitty Care Ear “gives us a new way to play,” says Traci Paige Johnson, co-creator of the series. “We love new stories, and we even have a little delivery service that delivers the little babies in the room. It’s expanding on all that imagination and creativity and the way that preschoolers really play with the dollhouse.”

Among the new main characters this season is Benny Box, Baby Box’s little brother, who provides an avenue for expanding this nursery room and caretaking throughline. “Benny gets his first tooth, and we get to meet the Kitty Tooth Fairy,” Johnson notes. “We’re super excited season after season building our Gabby cat family.”

Season ten introduced the Party Room, and the episodes’ storylines accordingly revolved around birthdays and parties and the fun that comes with them. This season “is all about family, nurturing, love and taking care of each other and the familial role of that,” Johnson explains.

A major part of Gabby’s Dollhouse is the growth mindset curriculum, and this season is no different. Growth mindset “is baked into every episode,” says Jennifer Twomey, co-creator. “It’s all about problem-solving and modeling grit and determination for kids, where you don’t give up and you’re not afraid to make mistakes. Every episode of Gabby’s Dollhouse has growth mindset in it, even though they’re all different.”

“One of the things we are really conscious of in Gabby’s is we don’t want to hit kids over the head with the lesson of the day,” she continues. “The construct of the show is the ultimate playdate. It’s like you show up and your best friend Gabby is there, and she has something super exciting planned for the day. The lessons of growth mindset are baked in.”

Even with these lessons, “this season really is about family and taking care of each other and loving each other,” she reiterates.

“And the idea of how important it is to say ‘I love you’ or ‘I care for you’ and how you show your love,” Johnson adds. “Love is a verb. You’re showing how you care for someone and how good it feels to care for somebody. And it feels good for yourself, not [just] for the other person.”

Their mission of furthering a growth mindset curriculum and fostering themes about family and community is being supported by a new program of Gabby’s Dollhouse MEOWseum Discovery Days at children’s museums around the U.S. in partnership with the Association of Children’s Museums (ACM).

“We’re super excited to support the mission of children’s museums because it dovetails so perfectly with Gabby’s Dollhouse, which is all about imagination, play and creativity,” Twomey says. “That’s such an important part of childhood development and something that was our goal. We’re excited to lend a little bit of Gabby’s magic to what these museums already do. What an important thing that is for kids to have the opportunity to go there and experience those museums.”

“And it takes the play off of the screen,” Johnson says. “One thing we love about Gabby’s are all the do-it-yourself crafts and projects and recipes, and that’s what children’s museums are all about, too.”

Arthur Affleck, executive director of the ACM, concurs that the partnership with Gabby’s Dollhouse was a perfectly aligned match. “We’re always looking for new ways to add excitement into our spaces,” he explains. “We have some permanent exhibits and experiences, and then we bring in new things. This would be something new. It’s always nice to add something to our museums that is familiar to our visitors. And while we don’t encourage children to be on screens a lot, we do encourage them to consume positive movies and television, like the products that DreamWorks Animation puts out.”

The Gabby’s Dollhouse activation opened first at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in New York on January 25. “Thousands of people showed up to the museum,” Affleck says. “Many people said, Oh, by the way, this is the first time I’ve been in this museum. And the reason to come and participate was this MEOWseum Discovery Day event. It’s a win-win for us because it gets more people in who have never been, but then also our regulars get to do something new.”

Twomey and Johnson were able to attend the opening event at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, “and it was so much fun to see everyone so excited about Gabby’s Dollhouse, wearing their little cat ears, making their little hamster kitties and dancing to the DJ dance party,” Johnson says.

“Seeing that hands-on experience” was great, Twomey agrees. “We try to give kids and parents things to do once you turn the TV off, and a children’s museum is the epitome of that—a place to go and experience creativity firsthand.”

“And with the friendship of other people,” Johnson chimes in. “Because when you’re in your homes, you’re doing those things [alone]. But now, to be in an environment where you’re with other fans, you can interact and [ask], Who’s your favorite [cat]? It’s fantastic to see that connection, especially as we’re learning how important in this digital age connection is for kids—and adults.”

Luckily for kids and families around the U.S., the activation will take place over a year across the country. About 50 or 60 of participating museums will have the Gabby character on location for one or two days, Affleck says. Another hundred or so museums will not get the character, but they will receive games and activities around the Gabby’s Dollhouse theme for kids to do, including scavenger hunts and crafts such as creating their favorite Gabby cat or making cat ears.

“I have to tell you, my expectations have been exceeded in terms of what actually happened in the museums,” Affleck notes. “The number of people that have showed up, the joy on the faces of the children, the excitement—it’s just been amazing. We’re just getting started, in three or four museums, and we’ve got many more to go. I’m getting calls from other museum leaders who are saying, Hey, am I on the list? I want to get in on this Gabby thing!”

Ultimately, “we believe in the power of play and the power of our museums,” Affleck stresses. “We like to think about children’s museums as a third space. Children spend time at home. They spend time at school. We’re that third space where children can come and learn and grow and play and engage. My favorite quote about why this work is important with children: Frederick Douglass said, ‘It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men’ and women. And we spend so much time trying to repair broken men and women when, if we just invested more in children, especially at the earliest stages, to prepare them for school and life, they would be stronger people and better citizens. That’s what we’re all about. That’s what DreamWorks is about. It’s a marriage made in heaven. We’re so appreciative of the partnership.”

And for kids who can’t get enough of Gabby’s Dollhouse, even more content will be coming later in the year with a feature-length movie in September.

“We’re super excited for the movie,” Johnson says. “We will have our whole audience screaming and helping Gabby and the Gabby cats and singing and dancing along. We’re super thrilled to be part of that experience, too. And DreamWorks, they know movies.”