--- title: Five Best: Sesame Street Added a Character with Autism description: It's important that Sesame Street added a character with autism, is it time to end gendered award-show categories and more. canonical: https://time.com/4732796/its-important-that-sesame-street-added-a-character-with-autism/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-10T16:00:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:56.397Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Sesame Street Added an Autistic Character og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4732796/its-important-that-sesame-street-added-a-character-with-autism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sesame Street Added an Autistic Character twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # It’s Important that Sesame Street Added a Character with Autism by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 10, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 10, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Sesame Street added a character with autism. Here’s why that’s important.**](https://daily.jstor.org/why-it-matters-that-sesame-streets-newest-resident-has-autism/) By Farah Mohammed in _JSTOR Daily_ **2\.** [**Is it time to end gendered award-show categories?**](https://mic.com/articles/173513/gendered-awards-categories-are-problematic-combining-them-isn-t-a-perfect-solution#.saL5u0tdf) By Kevin O’Keeffe in _Mic.com_ **3\.** [**This is how we finish off malaria.**](https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sub-saharan-africa-fight-against-malaria-by-shamas-ur-rehman-toor-2017-04) By Shamas-ur-Rehman Toor in _Project Syndicate_ **4\.** [**Could digital apps for your health work as well as drugs?**](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604053/can-digital-therapeutics-be-as-good-as-drugs/?set=604110) By Christina Farr in _MIT Technology Review_ **5\.** [**The last thing America needs is more roads.**](http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/04/the%5Flast%5Fthing%5Famerica%5Fneeds%5Ffrom%5Ftrump%5Fs%5Finfrastructure%5Fplan%5Fis%5Fmore%5Froads.html) By Henry Grabar in _Slate_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4732796/its-important-that-sesame-street-added-a-character-with-autism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4732796/its-important-that-sesame-street-added-a-character-with-autism/"},"headline":"It’s Important that Sesame Street Added a Character with Autism","datePublished":"2017-04-10T16:00:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:56.397Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4732796/its-important-that-sesame-street-added-a-character-with-autism/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","gender","Autism","apps","Infrastructure","Malaria"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4732796/its-important-that-sesame-street-added-a-character-with-autism/","name":"It’s Important that Sesame Street Added a Character with Autism"}}]}] ```