People who know me very well will know this, I’ve always wanted to make kids television shows. As a result I tend to watch tons of kids shows, from Tellytubbies to Yo Gabba Gabba to Sesame Street all the way to those low budget ones where they wear tons of makeup and dance to songs for babies.

A few days ago I found the Sesame Street YouTube channel and ended up watching most of the stuff on there.. I really like that show. I always knew it was cleverly constructed, but I could never exactly put my finger on what exactly they’re doing to make it that relatable to children.

It was while watching one of the videos this morning that it finally became clear to me, they employ the same method that was employed by the well loved children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.

Each one of the main Sesame Street characters represents a certain important part of a growing child’s personality and I have some examples for you!

Take, for instance, Big Bird, he (I think it’s a boy bird) represent that awkwardness you feel when you grow up, that’s why he is taller than all the other characters and he’s also a little clumsy.

Then there is Cookie Monster, he is that part that always wants to eat sweets and nice things.

Elmo is that small part of in each of us that requires a lot of attention, love and time with people who interacts with you.

Bert and Ernie is that part every child needs, that internal dialog that allows them to work out concepts for themselves.

So what they do in Sesame Street is that they use all these parts of the child’s personality and lace them with lessons, from counting to reading. Then they also have little segments in between that teach little life lessons, but in the end of the day the core characters are the glue in the show.

This is only what I think they’re doing and I would love to hear your thought on this.