‘Sesame Street’ to Introduce First Ever Asian American Puppet Ji-Young
History will be made in the upcoming Sesame Street Thanksgiving special as the long-running children’s show is set to debut its first-ever Asian American puppet.
Ji-Young is a 7-year-old Korean American with a passion for skateboarding and rocking out on her electric guitar. The character is played by Korean American puppeteer Kathleen Kim and will be introduced in See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special, which lands on Thanksgiving Day on HBO Max, Sesame Street social media platforms, and on local PBS stations.
The special will also feature guest appearances from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, and a four-time tennis Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka.
“So, in Korean, traditionally the two syllables they each mean something different and Ji means, like, smart or wise. And Young means, like, brave or courageous and strong,” Ji-Young explained during a recent interview with the Associated Press. “But we were looking it up and guess what? Ji also means sesame.”
Kim was accepted into the Sesame Street workshop in 2014 and became an official part of the team the following year. Now she has a chance to help spread awareness with an original muppet of her own.
“I feel like I have a lot of weight that maybe I’m putting on myself to teach these lessons and to be this representative that I did not have as a kid,” Kim said.
She continued: “I remember like the Atlanta shootings and how terrifying that was for me. My one hope, obviously, is to actually help teach what racism is, help teach kids to be able to recognize it and then speak out against it. But then my other hope for Ji-Young is that she just normalizes seeing different kinds of looking kids on TV.”
Ji-Young’s introduction comes after Sesame Workshop established two task forces to overlook the show’s content and its diversity. This brought about Coming Together, a multi-year initiative focusing on how to talk to children about race, ethnicity, and culture.
See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special, Thursday, November 25, HBO Max and PBS
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