Autistic muppet joins Sesame Street gang

NEW YORK Folks on Sesame Street have a way of making everyone feel accepted.

That certainly goes for Julia, a muppet youngster with blazing red hair, bright green eyes — and autism. Rather than being treated like an outsider, which too often is the plight of kids on the spectrum, Julia is one of the gang.

Look: On this friendliest of streets (actually Studio J at New York’s Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street lives) Julia is about to play a game with Oscar, Abby and Grover. In this scene being taped for airing next season, these muppet chums have been challenged to spot objects shaped like squares or circles or triangles.

“You’re lucky,” says Abby to Grover. “You have Julia on your team, and she is really good at finding shapes!” With that, they skedaddle, an exit that calls for the six muppeteers squatted out of sight below them to scramble accordingly. Joining her pals, Julia takes off hunting.

For more than a year, Julia has existed in print and digital illustrations as the centrepiece of an initiative by Sesame Workshop called Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children.

She has been the subject of a storybook released along with videos, ebooks, an app and website.

The goal is to promote a better understanding of what the Autism Speaks advocacy group describes as “a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviours, speech and non-verbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences.”

But now Julia has been brought to life in fine muppet fettle.

She makes her TV debut on Sesame Street in the Meet Julia episode airing April 10 on both PBS and HBO.

Additional videos featuring Julia will be available online.