Sesame Street Introduces First Character With Autism

Sesame Workshop is looking to help destigmatize autism by digitally introducing its first autistic muppet, Julia.

Julia is part of Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children, which lives on an app with visual elements intended to help children with autism and their families. Among those digital elements are story cards in which Julia explains what makes her different from her friends.

“Families with autistic children tend to gravitate toward digital content, which is why we created Julia digitally,” Sesame exec Sherrie Westin told PEOPLE. “We want parents and children to understand that autism isn’t an uncomfortable topic.”