On March 19th, Julia, the newest Muppet on Sesame Street, the most beloved educational children’s program for 50 years, was announced to the world. While characters have come and gone on the show throughout the decades, Julia is special: she has autism.
Writers of Sesame Street say the reason behind Julia’s creation is to teach children that the little boy or girl in their playgroup is not deliberately ignoring them when they say hello. It is that their classmate/friend is slow to respond because they have autism.
You can blame vaccines all you want—the fact remains that every child of this generation will be touched by autism in some form, whether it be a family member, a friend at school, or they themselves are inflicted by the disability.
For this, I want to say thank you to Sesame Street.
My younger brother, Aaron, was diagnosed with autism in 2005 when he was eight years old. Prior to that, he was exhibiting what you would call “behavioral problems,” such as throwing violent tantrums when things did not go as he wanted or as was planned. But he could talk, and he was excelling at things other children his age had not yet learned, such as reading at only three years old.
For years, no one even dared to say the word “autism” because the diagnosis was just too frightening. It wasn’t until he was in second grade that, after one too many instances, he was sent to a child psychologist. Only then did he finally receive the diagnosis of autism.
I want to thank Sesame Street for being so forward thinking. If Julia had been on the show when Aaron was the age of the children watching this program, he might have had a better social experience in school. But now someone else’s little brother will be treated with compassion by his peers because they saw how kind Abby, Elmo, and Big Bird are to Julia. Autism is being normalized rather than shunned.
So, I will say it again: thank you Sesame Street for continuing to educate children and teach them compassion. Thank you for not sweeping things like autism under the rug and pretend they don’t exist. Thank you for giving all kids a chance.
