By Bryce Becker, PhD, Diondra Brown, LCSW, Momo Hayakawa, PhD, and Alneida Madrigal

“Which character in that TV show was your favorite?”

“That one — because she’s got braids like me.”

Meet Cora from Twin Cities PBS’s forthcoming series “Skillsville.” Cora is one of three main characters in the show. Her character design, along with the design for all main characters, was informed by multiple rounds of testing and feedback from children and caregivers across the country before it was finalized.

Representation matters to children. They notice when a character’s hair texture looks like theirs, they notice if a character sounds like them, and they also notice if a character is bilingual just like them. As producers of educational children’s media, we view equity as a foundational building block for all out content.

We at Twin Cities PBS are developing a new animated children’s series called Skillsville, along with digital and paper-based games and activities for children ages 5–8 and their families. Funded by a Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education, our content is designed to help children expand their executive function skills and self-regulation strategies — skills that everyone needs to succeed across school, work, and life.

Here, we describe one way that our team has sought to forefront equity work by creating a set of actionable principles that guide our work across every phase of content production.

Why Representation Matters in Children’s Media

In their comprehensive report, The Inclusion Imperative: Why Media Representation Matters for Kids’ Ethnic-Racial Development, Common Sense Media concluded that negative media depictions of a child’s racial or ethnic group can impact their sense of self, while positive depictions can favorably impact their perceptions about themselves and their ethnic-racial group. They also found that BIPOC groups are underrepresented in movies and television, and that when they are represented, they are more likely to be stereotyped compared to white characters. The report reminds us that the classic children’s shows Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood have long been shown to positively impact racial attitudes. In conjunction with well-documented research that children begin thinking about and making sense of both their own and others’ racial and ethnic identities as young as infancy, all these findings point to the importance of positive, authentic, and meaningful representation within children’s media.

Meaningful representation matters not only for ethnicity and race but also across all categories of identity. For example, according to Sandra Calvert at Georgetown University, children are sensitive to gender norms that they see in media as early as preschool, and they look for characters whom they can relate to. When they see their own backgrounds represented positively, it can foster healthy self-esteem and strengthen their sense of identity. Conversely, “a lifetime of viewing stereotypical media becomes so ingrained it can ultimately affect kids’ career choices, self-worth, relationships, and ability to achieve their full potential,” according to Caroline Knorr, former family editor at Common Sense Media.

Positive representation in children’s media can also address social stigmas surrounding gender and sexuality identities, as scholars like Lou Lamari and Pauline Greenhill have suggested, and findings are similar when it comes to disability. For example, media can positively impact children’s understanding and attitudes towards people with disabilities. Researchers Eunice Chow and Momo Hayakawa studied the impacts of a single episode of the animated television show Hero Elementary that focused on one character’s experience as a child with autism. They found that children’s media may impact young viewers’ understanding and perceptions of autism even with such a low exposure.

Because TV plays a role in how we perceive different groups of people and even ourselves, it can be used (intentionally or unintentionally) to either reinforce stereotypes or challenge them. As a team of educational children’s media creators, we wanted to hold ourselves accountable to always doing the latter — to representing people authentically, to helping children imagine and realize futures that are often represented as off-limits to certain groups of people, and to centering the voices and experiences of the groups represented within our content.

Our Road to Equity in Children’s Media Production

Creating quality children’s television with equity at its core requires representation across all aspects of content creation and is entailed in every decision that content producers make. For example, equity plays into considerations like:

• Who the character of focus is for each story
• How dialogue is written for each character
• Which voice actors are selected for each character
• How voice actors deliver the dialogue
• How characters are represented through artwork and animation
• Who weighs in on creative, content, and business decisions
• How the series will be promoted and where it will air

To center equity work across every decision, we convened national experts across multiple disciplines, including diversity and representation in children’s media, implicit bias training, and culturally informed, emotionally responsive practices, to form our Equity Council, whose primary task was to lead the development of the “Equity Principles for Production of Children’s Media.”

Thus, in fall 2021, the Equity Council convened to outline the functional and academic goals for equitable creation of children’s educational content in the pre-production, production, and post-production phases. They met again in January 2022 together with the TPT Ready to Learn staff to review these initial goals and collaboratively identify specific steps for how to achieve each goal during each phase of production. This work included individual pre-meeting brainstorms with each Equity Council member and small group breakout sessions during the meeting. From the meeting, the “Equity Principles for Production of Children’s Media” emerged. These principles are not limited to children and can be applied to media produced for any audience. Yet we emphasize “children” here in order to spotlight our youngest audience, who are amongst the most impressionable.

Rather than a checklist to run through, we designed these principles to guide our work from the moment we start to brainstorm ideas all the way through to when we share the content that we’ve produced with the public. The aim was to provide concrete directions for children’s educational content developers, ensure that Skillsville content and programs reflect diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility (DEIBA) efforts, and assist in formally documenting our DEIBA work.

Equity Principles for Production of Children’s Media

Here, we share our “Equity Principles for Production of Children’s Media,” which consist of four steps and 10 goals, along with action steps for each, to ensure the creation of equitable children’s media from inception to dissemination:

STEP 1: Recognizing that there is inequity.

STEP 2: Pre-Production/Brainstorming

GOAL: Children can see themselves represented in the characters in a meaningful way.

HOW:

• Casting: Have voice actors match the cultural background of the character they are playing, making sure the characters align and are representative of various communities.
• Hold focus groups with children who are being represented on screen and empower them by providing them with a space to share their lived experiences.
• Brainstorming: Who is a part of these meetings? Are the characters’ cultural backgrounds represented in real life by the people at these meetings? Ensure writers, producers, and consultants/experts are present from the beginning to add to the story.
• Character Details: There are cultural/community/class nuances that are often overlooked (e.g., Spanish language fluency vs. Spanglish representation).
  ​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​○ What are culturally responsive nods to include, and what ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​​​​ reinforces stereotypes? (e.g., the use of a specific word, ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​​​ ​​​ especially if it is “slang,” items of clothing)

GOAL: Acknowledge that there is no one way to experience any one disposition — e.g., disability, ethnic identity, gender identity, socioeconomic status. 

HOW:

• Build awareness around stereotype pitfalls that can emerge; take the time to build awareness of harmful stereotypes; look at ways that stereotypes have been reinforced instead of dispelled.
• Dive deeply into research of tropes and stereotypes.
• Be aware of the areas of identity. There are some people who are perceived as being one thing.
  ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​○ An open discussion on colorism (e.g., BIPOC characters being ​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ portrayed with light eyes or rare features).

GOAL: Build off a blueprint set by a show/game/media company that seems to be moving in the right direction. Learn from the past mistakes of those who missed the mark. 

HOW:

• Ask the community questions like, “What do you know?” instead of telling them how to create a story that fits into a preset mold for them.
• Bring the right people to the table from the beginning. If this isn’t done, the ramifications are seen in all parts of productions. It’s often too late by the time diverse communities are brought on to “fix/help” things.
• Prioritize experiences that match the day to day and don’t look at communities as monolithic. The notion of community may be expressed in unexpected ways, but in ways that tell a rich story.
• “Getting it right” retrospectively — the Executive Producer is willing to make a statement acknowledging when there is a mistake or critique brought to light.

GOAL: Content and curriculum should be accessible, so that all children can see what they are learning on screen in the real world around them and vice versa.

HOW:

• Develop accessible content across different formats (e.g., audio, translations)
• Reinforce what is being written by writers and told by characters in other ways in the show (e.g., How is the content found naturalistically in communities? How can we communicate that everyone can have access to this curriculum in their own community context?)
• Conduct focus groups to gather information from the intended audience about their lived experiences.
• Use Universal Design for Learning as a guide to map the multiple entry points that give people access to the curriculum.

STEP 3: Production

GOAL: Continuously questioning oneself and having sound rationale for creative decisions.

HOW:

• Carefully plan the “show bible” (spending as much time as possible on this and iteratively seeking feedback).
• Include everyone from the pre-production process throughout the development of the show bible. There needs to be consistency among the voices contributing to the creative decisions made.

GOAL: Acknowledge different lived experiences and how they relate to why stories are told.

HOW:

• Positive representation.
• Acknowledge the harm that has been done by other projects when applicable.
• Create spaces for amnesty — spaces with the community (e.g., focus groups) on how they’ve been harmed by media.

GOAL: Looking at content creation through the lens of self-identity of the audience.

HOW:

• Keep the voices that have been at the table from the beginning (e.g., focus groups participants).
• Conduct outreach and community engagement with those doing similar work (culturally) in and outside of the media space.
• Consider integration of user-generated content (e.g., a space for children to represent themselves).

GOAL: Giving more content developers and media makers (e.g., game designers, creators, writers, producers) a chance to help decide how to represent their lived experiences through characters.

HOW:

• Have people from underrepresented groups in positions of power/leadership.
• Build mentorship into the model of leadership and engagement on the production team.
• Give new voices employment opportunities as part of the larger team with an active, collaborative role in the production process.

STEP 4: Post-Production/Dissemination/Community Engagement

GOAL: Access is equity — children’s media and content should be as accessible as possible. 

HOW:

• Consider accessibility features such as captioned videos, image description, American Sign Language, and different language options.
• Develop an accessible website.
• Reach out to experts in the field of assistive technology for support and as a possible partner to brainstorm different ways to increase accessibility.

GOAL: Ensure that we get the show to the target audience by going beyond traditional broadcast and streaming platforms. Think of different strategies to reach the audience that we’re intending to serve. 

HOW:

• Research the different ways that diverse communities of people seek information.​
  ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​○ ​​​Provide information in different languages.
  ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​○ Consider cultural differences in how information is sought 
  ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​​​out.
• Research what educators use to seek out information and content.
• Consider how public libraries and community-based organizations provide programming.
  ​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​○ ​​​e.g., Libraries have programs for adults. When adults are in ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​ ​ ​ ​ ​​​ ​​​ ​ ​​​ ​​ ​​​ ​ ​​ ​ ​​​​classes, their children have a need for programming.

The kitchen and living room where Dev and his grandmother live. “Skillsville” Equity Council members and subject matter experts advised on details like what kinds of dishes, traditional utensils, artwork, decor, and colors might be authentic in a Punjabi American family’s apartment.

Continued Journey Towards Equity

The Twin Cities PBS Ready to Learn team continues to work with the Equity Council and subject matter experts to ensure that our work meets the standards set forth in these principles. The principles guide every aspect of development across the Skillsville project, not only as we produce television content but also as we created both digital and paper-based games and activities. We emphasize “Children’s Media” in the title to highlight the special importance of taking this approach when developing content for our youngest audiences, who are actively forming their understandings of themselves and others. We believe these principles offer a useful guide for any team creating children’s media that strives to center diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility with meaningful representation.

These principles were created by Twin Cities PBS’s Ready to Learn Team and the Equity Council in order to guide the development of all content included in the Skillsville show and project. Our Equity Council members include:

• Priya Desai, Principal, Illumin Media, LLC
• Aya Gallego, MAT, Director of Community, Cinereach
• Ed Greene, PhD, President, EMGreene Educational Connections Associates, LLC
• Amina Jaafar, PhD, Chief Operating Officer, IDEA, Twin Cities PBS
• Alice Wong, MS, Director, Disability Visibility Project

Together, they bring expertise across multiple disciplines: diversity and representation in children’s media, implicit bias training, and culturally informed, emotionally responsive practices. They continue to advise our team on a wide array of issues in intersectional (Crenshaw, 1991) representation in children’s media, for example through television script review, and we are forever grateful for the lenses and wisdom they share with us.

To learn more, visit our platform here and peek behind the curtain with Dev, or check out and subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here.

Whole organizations have dedicated themselves to documenting and improving representation in media. For more resources, check out, for example, the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at UCLA, The Representation Project, The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and the Children’s Television Project at Tufts University.

The contents of this article were developed under a Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education (#S295A200002). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.