By Brandy black
Raising kids in a modern family with two moms, it is often difficult — okay, near impossible — to find children’s TV programs or films that feature families like ours. But it doesn’t stop there. We’ve also noticed a lack in TV and film featuring other diverse families or with characters that break out of gender stereotypes. As parents, my wife and I want our kids to be exposed to diversity in the media that they consume because they live in a diverse world.
This is all to say that we are so excited to see that Nickelodeon is doing their part to help diversify children’s TV shows by introducing, Nella, the Princess Knight. Not only does Nella break the gender stereotypes of “princesses” by being a strong and capable, fighting knight as well, but she’s also biracial! Her father is black and her mother is white.
Nickelodeon told the New York Times that their decision to make their newest character part of a biracial family came from research that showed that most children under 12 would be nonwhite by 2020 (that’s in 3 years!) and currently 17% of that population are already biracial. Our communities are extremely diverse and Nickelodeon seems to be understanding that that has to be reflected on their shows.
We are more than enthusiastic that Nickelodeon didn’t create just another princess who fell into common “girl” stereotypes. “There are a lot of princesses out there and we had to think about what would make a Nickelodeon princess unique. What became crystal clear to us in the development process is that Nella didn’t have to be a princess or a knight ― she could be both,” Nina Hahn, Senior Vice President of International Production and Development at Nickelodeon, told The Huffington Post.
Nella is a hero in her own right and can show young girls and boys that girls are strong and capable. We can’t wait to introduce this show to our kids! Check out a commercial for the show below. We just LOVE that they used “Fight Song” which was last used in Hillary Clinton’s campaign.