--- title: Sesame Street to Introduce Julia, a Muppet With Autism description: The makers of the show worked with autism organizations to figure out how best to portray Julia, the new character canonical: https://time.com/4706442/sesame-street-muppets-autism-julia/ author: Zamira Rahim article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-20T12:50:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:55:15.842Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Sesame Street' Is Introducing a Muppet With Autism Next Month og:description: Julia is set to appear on the show in April og:url: https://time.com/4706442/sesame-street-muppets-autism-julia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcaacd3a71924c0/6988bf010b72e37d7d6ed032/sesame-street.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: sesame-street og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Sesame Street' Is Introducing a Muppet With Autism Next Month twitter:description: Julia is set to appear on the show in April twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcaacd3a71924c0/6988bf010b72e37d7d6ed032/sesame-street.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Sesame Street_ Is Introducing a Muppet With Autism Next Month by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Mar 20, 2017 12:50 PM UTC  CBS by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Mar 20, 2017 12:50 PM UTC _Sesame Street_ will introduce [Julia](http://time.com/4082185/sesame-street-first-autistic-character/?iid=sr-link2), a muppet character who has autism, [onscreen in April](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-sesame-street-muppet-autism-20170319-story.html). Julia has already been featured in _Sesame Street’s_ world, after appearing online in a Digital Storybook tale, the Los Angeles _Times_ reports. Over the weekend, CBS’ [_60 Minutes_](http://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/) revealed that the character would be appearing on the television show itself. > [](https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/843620964474806272) Julia will appear alongside characters Elmo and Abby and will meet Big Bird. The show will portray Julia as hesitant to shake Big Bird’s hand and explain why. The team behind [_Sesame Street_](http://time.com/3997903/sesame-street-hbo-inequality/?iid=sr-link1) worked with autism organizations to figure out the best way to portray Julia on screen. “It’s tricky, because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every single person who has autism,” writer Christine Ferraro said. “I would love her to be not Julia, the kid on _Sesame Street_ who has autism. I would like her to be just Julia.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4706442/sesame-street-muppets-autism-julia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4706442/sesame-street-muppets-autism-julia/"},"headline":"Sesame Street Is Introducing a Muppet With Autism Next Month","datePublished":"2017-03-20T12:50:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:55:15.842Z","description":"Julia will appear on the show in April","url":"https://time.com/4706442/sesame-street-muppets-autism-julia/","keywords":["Television","Autism","Sesame Street","Muppets","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcaacd3a71924c0/6988bf010b72e37d7d6ed032/sesame-street.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zamira Rahim","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltefcaacd3a71924c0/6988bf010b72e37d7d6ed032/sesame-street.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"sesame-street","caption":"sesame-street","creditText":"CBS","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4706442/sesame-street-muppets-autism-julia/","name":"Sesame Street Is Introducing a Muppet With Autism Next Month"}}]}] ```