{"id":12305,"date":"2017-03-22T10:22:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T14:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=12305"},"modified":"2017-03-22T10:22:38","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T14:22:38","slug":"sesame-street-welcomes-julia-muppet-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2017\/03\/sesame-street-welcomes-julia-muppet-autism.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sesame Street\u2019 Welcomes Julia, a Muppet with Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Julia<\/a>
Credit: Sesame Workshop<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Julia, a little girl Muppet, has been in \u201cSesame Street\u2019s\u201d online series since 2015, however she\u2019s finally making her TV debut on HBO and PBS in April.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s creators have a goal to help children better understand playmates who have autism, which affects millions of American children. Children with autism will also now have a Muppet that they can better identify with.<\/p>\n

In Julia\u2019s first episode, she is introduced to Big Bird but is hesitant to shake his hand. Big Bird becomes nervous that Julia doesn\u2019t like him, however Elmo explains that Julia has autism so she \u201cdoes things a little differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia\u2019s designers were eager to use the new Muppet to express issues kids with autism often deal with, without turning her into some kind of standard model for everyone with the disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tricky because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every single person who has autism,\u201d writer Christine Ferraro told \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s a saying that if you\u2019ve met one person with autism,\u00a0you\u2019ve met one person with autism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia\u2019s puppeteer, Stacey Gordon, has a son with autism. She wishes Julia had been around years ago when he was \u201cSesame Street\u201d age.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad my son\u2019s 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,\u201d Gordon told \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d \u201cAnd [they] would have known that he plays in a different way, and that that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julia, a little girl Muppet, has been in \u201cSesame Street\u2019s\u201d online series since 2015, however she\u2019s finally making her TV debut on HBO and PBS in April. The show\u2019s creators have a goal to help children better understand playmates who have autism, which affects millions of American children. Children with autism will also now have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[3352,595,3350,3351,806,1885],"class_list":["post-12305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-television","tag-autism","tag-hbo","tag-julia","tag-muppet","tag-pbs","tag-sesame-street"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Sesame Street\u2019 Welcomes Julia, a Muppet with Autism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"'Sesame Street' has a new goal to help children know that autism isn't something to be afraid of.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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