Meet Julia!
Elmo, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, and you cant forget about the Cookie Monster, were all characters who most of us grew up with on the classic PBS show Sesame Street. Our mornings were spent singing "Elmo's World", replying to Big Bird, and eating breakfast while the Cookie Monster chomped on his famous chocolate chip cookies.
Though, after many years of waking up to Sesame Street, the show is welcoming a new character named Julia.
Julia is a shy and winsome four-year old, with extremely red hair and green eyes. She enjoys painting and picking flowers. However, Julia does things a little different than the other characters.
Julia speaks and often groans and echoes what she hears her friends say like Abbey and Elmo. When she is excited, she flaps her arms around, and loud sounds scare her.
Julia has autism.
According to Sesame Street, they worked closely with organizations to figure out which autistic traits and features they should instill in Julia. They hope to bring to light things like social anxiety, sensitivity to noise, and high energy.
The CDC explained that in the U.S. one in every 68 children is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Introducing Julia is a breakthrough for children's television. Not only does Julia bring the idea of equality but also it allows kids now to learn how to behave and treat the inclusion of people who are different than them, and that is pretty awesome!
People need to understand that children who are growing up these days struggle with a lot more things than we did and allowing the friendship and modeling of Julia is just one step to helping them.
Im not sure about you but I cannot wait to meet Julia. She is making her big TV debut on April 10.