Sesame Street's new character Julia, who has autism, came to life with the help of A UNC Professor. 

TEACCH Autism Executive Director Laura Klinger, Ph.D., said assisting the show has been a 5 year process. Sesame Street gathered her and other advisors together in 2012. The original plan was to create online resources for families. Now, Julia is on the family favorite show. "They really relied on us early on to give ideas and then since then they've really moved forward and gained in their own understanding of autism. And they're not really sending us the scripts any longer but in the early days they were having us look at every piece of material they were putting together," said Klinger.

Klinger told us Julia is somewhere in the middle of the autism spectrum. "They've worked so hard to have the struggles that Julia faces be clear on the show," said Klinger. She goes on to say, "She has language but she doesn't have a lot of conversational language. She's interested in other people but she doesn't really quite know how to play with the other characters on the show."

Folks like David Laxton with the Autism Society of North Carolina applaud the work of Sesame Street. "It's not only helping the viewers understand what's going on but it's also helping the viewers understand how to interact with their peers who happen to have autism," said Laxton.

It is understanding that Seanya Rains, a mother to a 6-year-old son with high functioning autism, appreciates. Rains spoke to her son about Julia just this morning about what he thought of the muppet. He said to her, "Is she going to help people understand me? And I explained yes, she represents children who are autistic and she's educating those who don't know and he explained to me that he liked that idea." 

Klinger tells us that according to the CDC, 1 in 68 eight-year olds has a diagnosis of autism. She adds out of every four diagnosis, three are boys makis Julia even more unique as a girl. "The choice to raise awareness that girls can have autism is very important," said Klinger. 

One more interesting fact Klinger notes, the son of the woman who performs Julia also has autism. 

April is National Autism Awareness Month.