The importance of Dora the Explorer

Dora has been around for what feels like forever. It probably feels that way for me because I have never lived in a time where Dora did not exist. When I was younger I never really watched Dora, although we did own one movie about her finding keys for dogs though (I looked it up, it was called “Save The Puppies!”) Even though little Amelia was not a big fan of Dora I most definitely can say that Latina and just any kind of minority representation is very important. Most television and movies tend to be very white and straight and cis and not have a lot or any representation, especially kid shows. Some people may say that children are too young to learn about “those” kinds of people and you know what I say to that? Grow up. Minorities exist and it's time that we stop pretending they don’t. Kids need to be exposed to learning about people of different races, religions, sexualitys, genders, home lives, mental or physical illnesses because they need to learn that it's okay to be or have those different things. They didn't just pick Dora being Latina on a whim, it was very purposeful. Dora being a latina for the lead of an extremely popular children's TV show is a pretty big deal if you think about it. Tons of young latinas have probably watched Dora growing up and looked up to her because they could relate to her and that's very important. Every young child should be able to look up to someone like them that they see on TV. I’ve had a lot of fictional characters that I looked up to when I was younger, I always used to (and still kinda do) go through these little phases (the ones I can remember the clearest are the Disney princesses though.) Who was your guys’s?