'Sesame Street' Introduces Julia, a New Character With Autism

[IContainMultitudes]

There's a new muppet on Sesame Street: Julia. She's a "preschool girl with autism who does things a little differently when playing with her friends, the lovable Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Grover," the Sesame Workshop told ABC News.

Julia is the face of a broad set of autism-awareness tools the Sesame Workshop has rolled out. In development for three years, the new program is dubbed "Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children." It includes a dedicated website with autism resources and an iPad app with the same content—including storybooks, videos, and daily routine cards. The program is aimed at families with kids ages 2 to 5, though judging from these YouTube comments, there are plenty of older kids and adults who are excited about the new program.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/70209/sesame-street-introduces-julia-new-character-autism

 

[tree]

I didn't realize this thread was already here when I posted on the other one.
https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/seseme-street-is-introducing-a-muppet-with-autism.13796/

I'm not excited about the new character.
I liked classic Sesame Street when there was more
emphasis on letter & numbers. If that is what the
new character brings with her/is surrounded by, OK.

If it's just another character that we are supposed to
love because 'we are all different'---I don't find that
concept interesting.

 

[NateSean]

I'm not excited about the new character.
I liked classic Sesame Street when there was more
emphasis on letter & numbers.

Sesame Street was also about being a good neighbor, and about enjoying diversity of the people we share the world with. I remind you of Linda who was a main character, and deaf, and there were segments of early Sesame Street that dealt with her challenges in the world.

There was also language arts, cultural lessons, appreciation of art and music, etc. Sesame Street was about way more than letters and numbers, and they're really not doing anything differently with this new character than they were when they introduced Big Bird or Elmo.

I suppose my only concern is that there is no cookie-cutter Autistic person, and I feel like this would be yet another character that people look to as a template and not a representation of an individual on the spectrum.

 

[tree]

NateSean
Yeah, I know the show was character driven.
I just really enjoyed the more off-the-wall/abstract presentations
in the past. Less of the extremely obvious 'we are all different
and it's OK' stuff.

Linda was less obviously 'placed' it seemed to me.
I don't know why that seemed less obvious.
Maybe because I worked in a population that used sign.

I am not saying that having an emphasis on autism isn't good.
I am thinking that selecting a character solely on the basis of
one aspect is not likely to make for a well developed character.

For instance, Bert was Bert and not a guy chosen to represent aspies.
He was someone before he was ever identified as standing for
something.

I was about to say I had no source identifying Bert as possible aspie,
but hey.....here is one. (I just looked this up, a minute ago. Until now,
thinking Bert as aspie was just an observation I had read nowhere.)
http://www.thestonkingsteps.com/asperger.htm

Yeah, "cookie-cutter Autistic person"---just a muppet to slide into
place to accommodate the interest in spectrum material. I think Julia
may be rather under-developed/one-sided.

 

[Coupe]

I'm excited about Julia being introduced! I also feel some trepidation though, b/c although the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is working closely with Sesame Street on their autism project, it is still unclear whether Sesame Street is still involved with Autism $peaks, and if they'll be involved too. :/

 

[AGXStarseed]

I'm excited about Julia being introduced! I also feel some trepidation though, b/c although the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is working closely with Sesame Street on their autism project, it is still unclear whether Sesame Street is still involved with Autism $peaks, and if they'll be involved too. :/

Well according to this, Sesame Street are no longer associated with Autism Speaks:

https://did%3Dc2e83a06eb78c336cde1808213d4b04f198bd5fd%3Bid%3D131649870841%3Bkey%3DtSOXlYsAQtTtX-eGOEzc8Q%3Bname%3Dautismserenity

 

[Coupe]

Well according to this, Sesame Street are no longer associated with Autism Speaks:

https://did%3Dc2e83a06eb78c336cde1808213d4b04f198bd5fd%3Bid%3D131649870841%3Bkey%3DtSOXlYsAQtTtX-eGOEzc8Q%3Bname%3Dautismserenity

Yippeeee!! That's wonderful news! First it was Build-A-Bear that finally arrived at their senses, now, at last, it's Sesame Street!

...I forgot to mention it before, but I also love how the new Muppet's a girl - I agree that this is a step towards autistic/Aspergian women and girls no longer being so under-represented!

 

[King_Oni]

...I forgot to mention it before, but I also love how the new Muppet's a girl - I agree that this is a step towards autistic/Aspergian women and girls no longer being so under-represented!

It being a girl is actually one of the things I found weird about it. Since in general the condition is said to be found in boys more. While I don't believe that it's neccesarily a more boy-exclusive thing, it does make one wonder how "accurate" it is when they picked a girl for their designs for the character.

 

[Hedgehog Instigator]

It being a girl is actually one of the things I found weird about it. Since in general the condition is said to be found in boys more. While I don't believe that it's neccesarily a more boy-exclusive thing, it does make one wonder how "accurate" it is when they picked a girl for their designs for the character.

Perhaps this was chosen in order to dispel the classic male image associated with autism.

 

[vanillabuzz]

I'm extremely excited about this, personally. I love that it is a girl, being a woman myself. Here's their explanation of why, and another quote from this article, which is the one I read when the news came out.


So if Sesame, whose mission is “to help all children grow smarter, stronger and kinder,” were truly interested in representing autism most accurately, wouldn’t its new character be a boy?

That question isn’t lost on Sherrie Westin, Sesame’s executive vice president, global impact and philanthropy. Julia took three years to create, and after consulting extensively with researchers, she was at first surprised that they recommended a girl. But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her. “We made sure she was a girl namely because autism is seen so much more often in boys,” she said. “We wanted to make it clear that girls can be on the spectrum, too. .. We’re trying to eliminate misconceptions, and a lot of people think that only boys have autism.”


Another good quote from the article:

“We don’t pretend that every child who is on the spectrum is the same,” Westin said. Sesame is trying to tackle a fundamental problem: Autistic children are five times as likely to be bullied than their peers. Ultimately, after working with these groups and experts from such institutions as the Yale Child Study Center, they decided on these characteristics for Julia: She can talk. She cannot make extensive eye contact. And she flaps her arms when she gets excited. “We chose things we thought would be most helpful and most typical,” Westin said. On top of these markers of autism, Julia is very curious and smart.

 

[Peeta]

I'm curious to see how they're going to use Julia in shows and how kids will respond to her. I always loved Sesame Street as a kid and had a hard time 'quitting' it. If handled right I think it might be a good idea to teach kids from an early age that not everybody is the same. In hindsight I wouldn't be surprised if the bullying I experienced was from my Aspie eccentricities. My classmates sure could have used some of the Sesame Street lessons!

Here's to hoping Julia will get transported to Sesame Streets across the globe. I'll be looking forward to hear about her appearing in my country's version. I have very good memories of the show, fun characters and fun segments. If Julia isn't forced into it I don't see why she can't be a part of the usual formula.

 

[Coupe]

I'd also love it if Julia were actually a real Muppet on the show itself - I hope there are plans for that. As it currently stands, she's only shown in the digital storybook "We're Amazing, 1,2,3!" on the Sesame Street website.

 

[AspiePie]

I just hope that we can talk about the condition in other shows... The fact is there has been to much with aspies abnormal.... Having beloved charecters who are offically autistic would make it a whole lot better...

 

[Ylva]

Do the other characters explain themselves as much as she does?

 

[EricD]

Someone here said it best, if you've met one person with Autism, you've met one person with Autism. We're all different, sometimes VERY different. We vary in our ideas, attitudes, & mannerisms as much as NT's, probably more! We are in essence snowflakes.