While watching the news this weekend, I happened to notice something peculiar. Sesame Street, the world's most iconic children's program, is getting a new muppet. Her name is Julia, and there is something unique about her. She is autistic.

At first glance, she looks absolutely natural. She loves her stuffed animal, has a cute smile, and is overall a happy character. However, her actions are slightly different than many of the characters. She has a pattern of repetition, different hand gestures, and a slower reaction time than many of her friends (which is evident in her inability to immediately make friends). Rather than exclude her, the Sesame Street inhabitants gladly welcome her into the group.

In the grand scheme of things, autism is a widely talked about topic. 1 in 64 children have autism, and it is often a hard concept to grasp. There are varying symptoms of autism. Autism can range from a sensitivity to loud noises to a lot of nonverbal cues. To many children, these kids are strange and may not always attract the most friends. Learning at an early age to accept people for who they are is very crucial to learning how to accept one another.

On a show like Sesame Street, where the goal is to teach children about all different aspects of life, this is an amazing place to start with the recognition of disabilities and other services. Sesame Street doesn't have to be all about the alphabet or numbers, but it can be an array of topics from race to even disability awareness.

One thing that struck me the most is that the puppeteer is a mother with an autistic child. This strikes as a beautiful moment for not only the show, but for the company that Sesame Street belongs to.

I strongly believe this is a step in the right direction for children's television. I find it important that we cover all aspects of diversity on children's television. Sesame Street has done a good job of covering all aspects of culture. A few years earlier, they included a muppet wearing a hijab. They have covered a main character's death (in a non-fluffed version) and have taught the importance of respect for all people.

In all importance, I believe it is important to talk about different types of people and all scenarios in these children's shows, and I hope this muppet opens a lot of discussion. I know that, as a social work minor, it'll be exciting to watch the development of the character into discussions in the future.