Here’s the thing about children’s TV programming: It’s made by people who really care about kids and what they learn. OK, most of it; a lot of it is also to sell us toys and cereal. But anyone who grew up watching Sesame Street shouldn’t be surprised when another great kids show spreads the word on tolerance and love. That’s what Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues & You has done with its new alphabet song, which has a sweet LGBTQIA pride message tucked into its lyrics and video.
“And P is full of Pride!” sings Blue (voiced by Traci Paige Johnson) in “Alphabet w/ Blue,” a song exclusively streaming on the Blue’s Clues YouTube channel. The picture-book visuals accompanying this line are what really seal the message: P is rainbow-colored and surrounded by the flags for trans, asexual, intersex, nonbinary, pansexual, bisexual and other communities.
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Of course, most of Blue’s target audience does not really grasp the meaning of most of these various identities, and parents do not need to explain them all in detail to their kids. Instead, this is a chance to give them an age-appropriate lesson: These flags are how people express pride in who they are, and the fact that love is love.
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Actually, Nickelodeon even provided one more tool for parents to explain the flags way back in June, for Pride Month. In addition to the alphabet, colors are a great way to connect concepts for children, so saying that these colors represent inclusivity, spirit, nature, serenity, sunlight, healing, and life introduces the concept of loving everyone without even having to talk about sex. But just to be clear, you are going to have to do that eventually, too.
We should expect nothing less from Blue’s Clues — after all, the puppy already subverted gender norms by being blue and a girl. Last year, when SheKnows spoke to star Josh Dela Cruz, he also pointed out the impact he felt he could have on kids as a Filipino-American.
“One of my friends told me that their kid pointed to the screen and said, ‘He looks like me!’ That took me out,” he told us. “I didn’t really get a chance to experience anything in that capacity growing up.”
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