There was initial excitement when Made by Maddie was announced to preview on Nickelodeon this fall. The show would star a Black Girl named Maddie who is a fashion designer. The controversy started when potential viewers noticed how similar the characters look to another all Black cast cartoon, Hair Love. Both fathers roc loc'd hair and their daughters unprocessed kinks.
“Hair Love,” a short by Mathew Cherry about a Black millennial father attempting to style his young daughter’s hair. The short found it's way to us in 2017 as a viral Kickstarter campaign, and currently being developed into its own HBO Max animated series. Hair Love won Best Animated Short Film at the 2019 Oscars. According to Silver Gate Studios, creator of Made by Maddie, the show has been in the works since September 2017 which would mean they started a month after Hair Love was launched publicly.
While the shows characters are similar they follow a different story line. Still, the viral controversy has caused Nick to pull the show from it's fall line up
the show has been pulled from Nick's fall lineup.