The Sesame Street Muppet with autism who first appeared on the television series in 2017 is Julia.
Julia is a four-year-old girl and the show’s first autistic Muppet. Her regular television debut came in episode 4715, which aired in the United States on April 2, 2017, deliberately coinciding with World Autism Awareness Day.
Her character was developed with input from autistic advocates and families, including consultants connected with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Puppeteer Stacey Gordon performs Julia and drew on her experience as the mother of an autistic child. Julia communicates and responds to the world in ways that help the show portray autism as a spectrum rather than a single set of traits.
Julia actually appeared before 2017 in Sesame Workshop’s online initiative Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children, first released in 2015. That earlier digital appearance is why 2017 refers specifically to her debut on the main television series.