I found this interesting article from August. There are at least 3 people who know a lot about autism that greatly influence AJ's character the show. There's Anne Marie Sullivan from Spectrum Works, an organization that's designed to help adults with autism advance into careers. The second is Christine Ferraro's brother, who, as mentioned, has autism. The third is Dennis Taylor, who serves as a consultant on the show, and actually has autism.
Here's an episode.
Here's an episode.
Here's a promo for a week of new episodes.
"Hail Caesar/Picture Perfect" is now on youtube.
"AJ's Extra Superpower" is now on youtube.
Yesterday's new episode was put on You Tube.
Talk about Adult Fear at its finest.
https://mobile.twitter.com/HeroElementary/status/1415702249116942340
Edited by jessicadicicco610 on Jul 20th 2021 at 3:46:06 AM
"Heroes In Space" is on You Tube.
Hero Elementary will have a first day of school special airing on Monday September 6.
Lucita and AJ have had quite a few close moments in some episodes, as if they have a very strong bond. "First Day Of School" confirms this since they apparently knew each other before coming to Hero Elementary. This explains why scenes involving both of them hit harder emotionally.
I found this interview that Christine Ferraro and Carol Lynn Parente took part in last month when talking about autism, as well as the show in general. Here's some of what they said:
10:55 Carol Lynn Parente talked about how AJ wasn't initially going to be autistic. However, when looking at AJ, she thought that he was autistic, and applied it to his character. She mentions how important it is that he's an autistic main character here. The work behind Julia greatly helped the show (due to the rarity of girls in media to have autism).
14:55 Christine talks about the normalization of autism in the show. She says that it's a deliberate choice to not mention autism in universe. If you know about autism, he's still an inspirational character due to how he's seen as part of a group of friends who can make a contribution. If you don't know he has autism, you can just accept that he's a bit different yet is still a great person. She mentions a special episode in April that will be about his autism directly. The part about accepting differences is reinforced around 19:30.
Roughly 21:05 They both talk about the idea of acceptance, and how everyone will always help each other. There's no blame game when things go wrong.
24:18 They went through hundreds of names before settling on Hero Elementary.
26:10 Part of AJ's personality is also inspired by Christine Ferraro's brother, who's also into comics and is also autistic.
30:00 Carol Lynn Parente mentions how she and Christine Ferraro are currently working on another show, this one involving virtual gaming. This will take cues from their works. Christine is still working on Sesame Street.
32:55 Carol hopes they'll get a second season. They currently have content for the show going through 2022.