Second Nurture's '18 Months' retells adoption as pregnancy

Second Nurture supports foster and adoptive families, but adoption still carries stigma, especially for LGBTQ+ families. The nonprofit needed a film that made an 'untraditional' family story feel universal, launching in time for Father's Day 2025.

Retell a real adoption story as a metaphorical pregnancy: an 18-month legal fight mapped onto gestation milestones, proving there's no one right way to build a family.

Klick Health created the concept and Zombie Studio animated a six-minute stop-motion film: hand-sculpted puppets, backgrounds made from actual pages of 1950s pregnancy books torn apart and repurposed, 2D animation, CGI and shadow projections, set to Christina Perri's 'A Thousand Years' rerecorded as a duet, with archival news footage and family photos in the credits.

The film collected 29 award wins — seven Clios, nine ADC Annual Cubes, six D&AD Pencils including a Yellow, five One Show Pencils and two Webbys — and Second Nurture was named Non-Profit Client of the Year at the ADC Annual Awards 2026.

In August 2000, Danny Stewart found a newborn abandoned in a New York City subway station. With his partner Pete Mercurio, he spent the next 18 months fighting to legally adopt the boy, Kevin. Twenty-five years later, nonprofit Second Nurture turned that story into '18 Months', a six-minute stop-motion film released for Father's Day 2025.

The film's structural idea gives it its power: the adoption journey is retold to mirror the milestones of a pregnancy. The legal, social and personal hurdles the couple faced are reimagined as stages of gestation — backgrounds were made from actual pages of 1950s pregnancy books, torn up and repurposed, with hand-sculpted puppets, 2D animation, CGI and shadow projections set to Christina Perri's 'A Thousand Years', rerecorded as a duet that links the biological and adoptive storylines.

Created by Klick Health, animated by Zombie Studio and scored by Jamute, the film aimed to spark stigma-free conversations about adoption, especially for LGBTQ+ families. It went on to win 29 awards — seven Clios, nine ADC Annual Cubes, six D&AD Pencils including a Yellow, five One Show Pencils and two Webbys — and Second Nurture was named 2026 Non-Profit Client of the Year at the ADC Annual Awards.

The pregnancy metaphor makes an unfamiliar family structure legible to everyone, translating legal battles into emotional milestones.

The torn pregnancy books carry the argument visually: the film literally repurposes the 'traditional family' manuals to build a new definition of family.

A real, documented story gave the campaign credibility no invented drama could match.

The craft — puppetry, shadow projection, a duet of a known love song — made a social message feel like art, which is why it swept design and film juries alike.

Familiar structure carries unfamiliar stories: mapping an 18-month adoption fight onto pregnancy milestones makes a 'different' family feel universal — the craft does the persuading.

Released in June 2025, '18 Months' was available to watch at 18monthsfilm.com, with a making-of published by Zombie Studio. The film continued collecting recognition through Creative Week 2026, bringing its total to 48 wins, including the D&AD Yellow Pencil and ADC honors, and Second Nurture was named ADC Non-Profit Client of the Year. The campaign's stated aim was to change how society defines family and to encourage support for foster and adoptive families.