The newest resident on Sesame Street will be educating viewers on a brand new subject—autism.
Julia, a little girl with red hair who is making her TV debut on HBO and PBS in April, was introduced on Sunday night’s 60 Minutes.
The show’s creators hope that Julia will not only give children with autism a Muppet to identify with, but will assist in helping children to better understand their playmates who deal with the disorder, The Huffington Post reports.
“It’s tricky because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every single person who has autism,” writer Christine Ferraro told “60 Minutes. “There’s a saying that if you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”
To accurately portray autism to the best of their ability — without making Julia the ‘standard model’ for everyone who has the disorder — Sesame Street consulted with multiple organizations that work with families to identify which components were best to highlight.
See how Julia was built below.
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