Earlier this year, Elmo — yes, that Elmo, the furry red character from Sesame Street — sent out what seemed like an innocuous post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?”
As it turns out, his followers were not doing all that well. The message got more than 20,000 replies, many of which described people’s mental health challenges. In response, Sesame Workshop partnered with The Harris Poll to get a sense of how people were actually doing.
Among the takeaways from the results: A third of parents say their family’s well-being is negatively impacted by mental health issues; for families with teens, that rose to half of respondents. When the survey asked what should be prioritized for the future well-being of the country, a majority of respondents said economic stability isn’t enough – it needs to be accompanied by investments in education and mental health.
Aaron Bisman, vice president of audience development at Sesame Workshop, joined The Show to talk about about the survey and what Elmo and friends may do next, starting with what the team at Sesame Workshop was expecting when Elmo sent this post back in January.
Full conversation
AARON BISMAN: So the truth is, you know, we didn't have a major expectation, in that moment. Elmo tweets many times a week as we, many of our characters do. They love connecting with their friends out in the world, you know, they have five generations of, of fans.
And so in some ways, you know, it was it was a normal post for us. But, we saw, almost immediately, that the response was truly unlike what we would get to any other type of, you know, everyday post.
MARK BRODIE: Yeah, I'm curious what some of those early responses looked like and what they sort of told you about what maybe you could expect beyond that?
BISMAN: Well, unfortunately, many of them right away were, were not very positive, right? What, what, what was positive to us was seeing how comfortable people were to respond to their friend Elmo. And we really think that that's why the responses were so significant and, and so real. But we saw that, you know, people were really not doing well overall, and that the tweet really helped open up our awareness and the awareness I think of, of much of the country to the mental health crisis going on today.
BRODIE: Yeah, I'm curious about that because it, of course, led you to work on this survey looking at the mental health of people in this country. And I wonder if, what you found in that survey, like how much did it correlate with what you saw on social media, people responding to Elmo?
BISMAN: Sure. So the, the survey that we conducted with The Harris Poll, it correlated very closely. But even more importantly, it helped us go much deeper and to establish a first of its kind index on the state of well-being in America.
So through it, we've really learned more about how Americans prioritize mental health, how they're talking about it, how they want to talk about it. And all of this information will go into our day-to-day work, continuing to create resources for children and their families. And it becomes a benchmark against which we can measure the state of well being in the years to come.
BRODIE: I'm curious how it will affect the kind of work that you do both in terms of maybe the on air and online product, but also other things that Sesame Workshop does.
BISMAN: Sure. Well, Sesame Workshop has always been grounded in research and focused on impact. And so, really the index will allow us to, to keep a pulse as we said on, on, on everyday Americans and what's driving well-being today. And so you'll see it show, up on the show on Sesame Street as well as in resources we have on our website in both English and Spanish for children and their families.
Beyond that, I think, you know, understanding really the state of well-being helps us ensure that all of the lessons, the guidance and our curriculum overall is really in touch and providing families with what they need today.
BRODIE: How do you anticipate it showing up on, on screen? And I'm not asking you to give away any secrets here or anything. But like, just because Sesame Street appeals to a fairly wide age range, especially, you know, with the younger kids, you know, when you're under, let's say 6 or 7, like a year or so, the difference is a pretty big difference in terms of development.
So how do you try to tackle something as important and as sensitive as mental health when you're dealing with so many different ages and so many different needs and developmental stages of kids?
BISMAN: Sure. So, we certainly know and, and it's, it's really a bedrock of the show that we have a wide ranging audience and can speak to so many children. When we talk about bringing emotional well-being into the context of the show, it does not necessarily mean we're speaking about the most extreme or dire situations that children or families might face.
The show is for everyone. And, and we also understand that young children are just beginning to be able to understand, articulate and name their emotions. And so that's really where, where the show primarily focuses in this way is, is with showing and watching the journey of being able to understand one's own emotions, right?
We, many of us have relearned that, that Elmo for all of his lovability and, and for all the love he has to share has a one major frustration in his life, which is his friend Zoe's pet rock, Rocco.
And Elmo versus Rocco was, you know, its own social media moment. But underlying that is something really important is that everybody gets frustrated with things and has, and that can create challenges and, you know, an important first step is being able to understand how you're feeling and name it, right? And, and situations like that, seeing characters perhaps exhibiting unexpected emotions is an important part of sharing with the viewers those situations and, and giving them something to, to learn from it and respond.
BRODIE: So, do you have plans to do a follow up survey at some point or, or to track how, what you're doing now based on these initial results, it is affecting or impacting viewers down the road?
BISMAN: Well, we are always doing testing both on the, on Sesame Street itself and, and how kids are learning from it and, and overall in the marketplace and this new survey with The Harris poll, we, we do hope we'll be able to continue on an annual basis and, and really be able to, to see the impact not just of our work but on you know, on so many factors going into going into the considerations of the well being of American families today.
BRODIE: How much of a dent do you think an entity like Sesame Workshop can put in the mental health issues that people in this country are dealing with?
BISMAN: Well, I wanna be careful not to suggest that we think this is a problem we can solve alone, or anywhere near. We understand that this is a much bigger problem and challenge than that. But you know, Sesame's unique ability is the marriage of media and education, right? All of it research backed.
And so we, we certainly hope that through the show, through educational resources, which are available for free on our website, on sesameworkshop.org, and through, you know, all kinds of programs we do around the country and around the world that we can make a meaningful contribution.
One really interesting insight that comes out of the survey is that 90% of respondents agree that nurturing kindness in children has a positive ripple effect, building a brave and caring society for generations to come. That is what Sesame Workshop is all about. So, hearing that kind of a response certainly gives us hope and optimism that we can be meaningful players in addressing this current situation.
