Sesame Street is presenting a new Muppet in its 47th season for the first time in a decade! Her name is Julia, a muppet with fiery red hair, green eyes, a cheerful personality, and autism.

Autism spectrum disorder is a mental condition that affects 1 in 68 children in the U.S. It is characterized by challenges in social skills, speech, nonverbal communication, forming relationships, and comprehending abstract concepts. Unfortunately, over 63% of kids with autism are bullied.This is mostly due to misunderstanding and lack of awareness of this disorder and failure to recognize the affliction it leaves, especially among children.

Julia first appeared as an illustration in Sesame’s Digital Storybook story, Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children. The Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, designed Julia to be a part of the campaign that will help to reduce the stigma of autism. Because autism is a spectrum disorder and is different for everyone, it can be hard to introduce. Thus, the show spent years in communicating with the experts and organizations in the autism community, such as the Autism Society of America, to create this green-eyed Muppet character.

Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president elaborated that, “We wanted to promote a better understanding and reduce the stigma often found around these children. We’re modeling the way both children and adults can look at autism from a strength-based perspective: finding things that all children share.”

In Julia’s first episode, the audience will see the common scenarios people with autism face. For instance, Julia shows her excitement to play a game of tag with the other Muppets by jumping up and down. Instead of criticizing her, they join her in jumping and turn it into a fun game. Additionally, in the episode she pays no attention to Big Bird when he arrives. He mistakenly takes this as a sign of dislike or annoyance and is hurt, but later realizes Julia simply communicates with strangers in a different way.

Stacey Gordon, Julia’s puppeteer, takes this role personally since she used to do therapeutic work for people with autism and has a child with the condition as well. She believes Sesame Street will be a great resource for autistic kids and for kids to learn about autism. She says, “It’s important for kids without autism to see what autism can look like. Man, I really wish that kids in my son’s class had grown up with a Sesame Street that had modeling of the behavior of inclusion of characters with autism.”

The viewers see beyond her autism. While Julia may be sensitive to loud noises, gets distracted easily, and repeats what others say, she is an artistic Muppet who likes to pick flowers, sing with the group, and play with Abby Cadabby first. Although it is unclear whether or not Julia will be a permanent character, she is scheduled to appear in two more episodes.