Sesame Street is introducing their first Asian American muppet.

Sesame Street is introducing their first Asian American muppet. YPulse’s Representation in Action trend research found that 54% of Millennial parents say they have had their child watch a TV show / movie because it featured an underrepresented group they wanted them to learn more about, and Sesame Street is making history by debuting Ji-Young, a 7-year-old Korean American muppet who likes skateboarding and rocking out on her electric guitar. She will be formally introduced during HBO Max’s See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special on Thanksgiving, which will also feature Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, Naomi Osaka, and Padma Lakshmi. The creation of Ji-Young comes after the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the last year. According to Sesame Workshop, they reflected on how the long-running children’s series could “meet the moment.” Puppeteer Kathleen Kim said that it was important to not make Ji-Young “generically pan-Asian,” since that was something that all Asian Americans experienced: “They kind of want to lump us into this monolithic Asian. So it was very important that she was specifically Korean American, not just like, generically Korean, but she was born here.” (AP News)