And as a mom of little girls myself it truly warmed my heart and almost brought tears to my eyes when my 8-year-old Mikaela saw Doc McStuffins for the first time and said, “Wow mommy, she’s brown.”
What a surprise I received today when I started getting congratulations tweets announcing that my blog was featured in a New York Times article about Doc McStuffins!
And this is my sweet 8-year-old Mikaela who was so happy and delighted when I showed her the new Disney cartoon. She was so surprised that the cartoon character was a reflection of herself that she said to me, “Wow mommy, she’s brown.”
In this day and time we would hope children’s programming would be more inclusive and have characters of all shapes and sizes and ethnicities, but the reality is it doesn’t. So when Disney launched the new Doc McStuffins series, parents like me were beside ourselves with joy because our kids could now see a positive reflection of themselves in a cartoon. And let’s face it: kids watch cartoons a lot. And every little bit of positive inspiration that encourages my kids to believe they can be a doctor, scientist, or even the President is just the type of programming we need in our life.
The problem is that there are too many negative images that bombard our kids like music videos of girls in skimpy clothes bumping and grinding and aspiring to be gold diggers instead of gold medalists. And success these days is measured by how many fancy cars you have or how much bling you can buy. Our kids need to see images like little girls in the role as a doctor, which traditionally is what most men are portrayed as on TV.
NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE: Disney Finds a Cure for the Common Stereotype with Doc McStuffins.
Doc McStuffins makes my day. Our impressionable children will see this character and imitate and emulate and it’s already happening right in my home. Unbelievably my 3 year-old son took a pen, attached it to his Iron Man Pez and pretended like he was giving his stuffed animal crocodile a needle! How innovative for a 3-year-old to process what Doc McStuffins does and imitates it! Now THAT is powerful and proof that we have to be mindful of what our children watch on TV!
The great thing about all this is I actually met Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee in April at the Disney Social Media Moms event and told her that VERY QUOTE Mikaela said that’s now featured in the New York Times article.
I love this show and can’t say enough good things about it.And my kids watch it faithfully. I even suggested to Chris that she TRY and develop a situation where one of the stuffed characters get a diaper rash of sorts. Chris said that was interesting and she would try and see if she can make that happen!
If you missed the Chris Nee interview, here’s a bit of it below. Or Click HERE to go to the article.
Little girls across the land can give their stuffed bears a big ole’ hug of happiness and a high-five for good health because their favorite female Doc is coming back to Disney Junior for a second season!
Disney Junior’s “Doc McStuffins,” an imaginative animated series about a six-year-old girl who runs a clinic for stuffed animals and broken toys out of her backyard playhouse, was the #1 most-watched preschool series launch in cable TV history in Adults 18-49, which means moms and dads were tuning in and making sure their kids got to see the little female African-American doctor who was helping her stuff animals feel better about visiting their physician.
And the fact is, the show is as cute as can be.
During the Disney Social Media Moms Event in April, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Nee, the creator and executive producer of Doc McStuffins because I wanted to know what inspired her to create such an adorable character.
“Doc was a real labor of love,” Nee said. Nee said she spent 15 years writing for Kids TV for popular show like the Wonder Pets and Little Bill. Writing for these shows as a parent without children soon changed once she became a mom herself. Nee said her son had asthma and that meant a lot of trips to the doctor’s office and it was always a trying process. Nee thought, “Why doesn’t someone do a show that will demystify this process for kids, she said.”
I agree. Like Nee, I’m the mom of a child with asthma. My 9-year-old daughter Kaitlin was diagnosed in 2006 after she just kept breathing hard and couldn’t seem to catch her breathe. We rushed her to the ER and when they took her vitals, the nurse just grabbed her and ran and rushed her into a room and the doctors worked urgently hooking her up to IVs and all kind of medical equipment. I had no idea what was going on and was clueless about asthma. The ordeal was scary for me, let alone Kaitlin who was four at the time. She stayed in the hospital for 3 days.
So Chris Nee, THANK YOU for creating a family friendly show centered around helping kids have a better medical experience! It’s a show that’s a must-need. And Michele Jabloner-Weiss, Executive Director, Original Programming for Disney Junior said creating this show was an easy decision. “Disney embraced the diversity,” Michele said. “I’m thrilled Disney brought this opportunity. We knew making it it was going to allow boys and girls to see themselves in a way they haven’t.” Not only that but this show has created an overwhelming response from African American physicians and women of color across the country who identify with little Doc McStuffins so much so that this image has gone viral. “We want all children to aspire to be a doctor,” Michele said.
Says Nee, “There are so many shows about first days of school, all hoping to ease kids through that trauma, but long before backpacks and cubbyholes, every kid faces the doctor. And shots. And scrapes, and sniffles and splinters.”
Nee had experience frequent return trips to the doctor after her son was diagnosed with asthma. Time and time again she said she watched her son experience fear and pain. All a mom wants to do is help their kid and for Nee, she took it a step further to help all kids by creating this show.
And kids, get your pennies from your piggy-bank piled up because there will be some new Doc McStuffins party supplies, books, toys, dolls and other accessories hitting store shelves between now and early 2013. Many of these items should be here just in time to hit kid’s Christmas wish lists this year! There’s also a Doc McStuffins DVD coming being released on August 21st, if you want to add it to your child’s DVD collection.
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