With Nickelodeon’s pickup of a second season of Kuu Kuu Harajuku, Gwen Stefani’s bubblegum-hued show about the misadventures of a girl band, the multi-hyphenate artist is continuing her own television adventure born more than a decade ago, hatched in Australia in 2015 and launched in the States last October on Nick.

Although she initially conceived of the show when she was developing her Harajuku Lovers brand that accompanied her solo music debut in 2005, the timing of the television debut of animated incarnations of Love, Angel, Music, Baby and G makes perfect sense, she tells Cynopsis. “A lot’s happened since then. I have three kids now and we watch cartoons, and this plays into how I see this show,” said Stefani. “You look at life so much differently when you have children. I wanted to make a show for children that was a safe place for kids to be. It’s dangerous out there, even in cartoon land.”

Stefani also wanted to reflect the concepts of creativity and having a unique voice. “Creativity is one of the things that’s saved me in my life. So for these characters to help kids be able to celebrate whatever’s unique about them is so important… These girls all have their own personalities. It’s not harajuku in the sense that it’s not a direct reflection of harajuku in Japan. It’s a fantasy world. Anything can happen but moral of the story always is, here are five different girls that are completely unique, and when they come together they are even stronger.”

The show is produced in Australia, and while Stefani stays very involved with the brand, she’s enjoying giving the creative team plenty of rope. “This is different. With everything I’ve ever done before, I’ve done everything. In this case, I’m not an animator. And the writers have all these ideas and they’re amazing. It’s really fun to be a part of this group, they’re just all so good at what they do.”

Stefani’s also excited about her working relationship with Nickelodeon. “I would’ve been happy to have anyone interested in anything I do, but Nickelodeon has so much history; they’re all about this,” she says. “They know how to go and get your shows watched.”