New Sesame Street Muppet Lily Teaches Children about Hunger

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‘Sesame Street’ Special on Hunger

Introduces New Muppet Character

Workshop Lily, a new Muppet, was created for a “Sesame Street” special about hunger.

A new visitor is about to move to Sesame Street. She could certainly benefit basking in sunny days and chatting with friendly neighbors. In a prime-time special on PBS, the beloved children’s show,, plans to raise awareness about hunger faced by American families. The Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit organization that produces “Sesame Street,” created a new Muppet character named Lily.

New Sesame Street character Lily

Lily is a seven-year-old girl representing one of 17 million American children that the Department of Agriculture classifies as “food insecure”—that their access to food is limited or uncertain.

On Monday morning, Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president for outreach and educational practices, said We thought long and hard about how do we really represent this from a child’s point of view? We felt it was best to have this new Muppet take this on in a positive way and a healthy way.

Betancourt said she and colleagues spent much time to consider Lily’s character. They wanted the new Sesame Street character to be realistic and empathetic to young viewers. The production staff carefully considered her style of dress and voice performance. They even considered her mannerisms: a tendency to look down at her feet rather than make eye contact when she is speaking to other characters.

The senior vice president noted, She wants to talk about this topic because she knows it will help many other families and children, but it isn’t an easy topic to talk about in the first place. The tone of the Sesame Street special, “Growing Hope Against Hunger,” is meant to generate hope as Lily visits a community garden and encounters popular Muppets like Elmo, Rosita, Bert and Grover, and celebrity guests Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams Paisley.

Currently, the Lily character will appear only on the special which debuts on PBS on Sunday. Previous Sesame Street specials addressed subjects such as economic insecurity and children with parents in the military.


Mad Mike’s America thanks FARK, Dave Itzkoff, and the New York Times Art Beat.


How do you think the public will react to Lily’s appearance on Sesame Street?

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Dorothy Anderson

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