Sesame Street Debuts New Muppet With Autism




Julia is the newest Muppet to arrive on Sesame Street. She’s a 4-year-old girl with autism.

Sesame Street has been around for a while. The show has also been pretty progressive when it comes to going outside of the box with content. Perhaps, it’s their way of trying to connect to the diverse audience the show attracts. We all know representation is essential, and Sesame Street doesn’t shy away from diversity.

Stacey Gordan, the puppeteer behind Julia has a personal connection to the Muppet. She has a real life relationship with autism. Having an autistic son has allowed her to actually see how beneficial it is for adults and children to be more educated on the subject.

Had my son’s friends been exposed to his behaviors through something that they had seen on TV before they experienced them in the classroom, they might not have been frightened, she said in her 60 Minutes interview.

Autism is a mental condition that affects the way one relate to themselves, those around them, and the world itself.

While this condition may affect social skills, behaviors and speech, an autistic person is still a person. Autism just causes them to experience life differently than what’s normally presented to us. Exposing more people to knowledge on the condition will greatly help those understand what autism actually is, and possibly make it less of a foreign thing to those who may not have had direct experience with it.

You and your little ones can catch Julia and all her greatness on Sesame Street next month.