Sesame Street, a well-loved kids’ TV show created more than 50 years ago, has announced the introduction of a new autistic character – Julia.

The young girl with bright orange hair was inspired by the show’s bosses after wanting to highlight the social difficulties of autism.

“The big discussion right at the start was, ‘How do we do this? How do we talk about autism?’” Sesame Street writer Christine Ferraro said.

“It’s tricky because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every single person who has autism.”

They say that Julia will often ignore other characters – not because she doesn’t want to speak – but because she feels overwhelmed or confused.

In other scenes, they say, Julia will join in with children playing a game of Tag, but will not understand the rules.

Stacey Gordan, the puppeteer who will control Julia, is a mother of an autistic son herself.

“Had my son’s friends been exposed to his behaviours through something that they had seen on TV before they experienced them in the classroom, they might not have been frightened,” she told 60 Minutes.

“They might not have been worried when he cried. They would have known that he plays in a different way, and that that’s OK.”

Ms Ferraro says that his ambition is to normalise Julia’s behaviour, so that others with autism can be better understood.

“I would love her to be not Julia, the kid on Sesame Street who has autism,” he added.

“I would like her to be just Julia.”