STAGE TUBE: Sesame Street's 'I Love My Hair' goes Viral

By: Oct. 19, 2010
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A little Muppet girl with an afro is getting a lot of attention on YouTube and on a lot of news channels lately with stories on ABC and NPR to name a few. And the puppet has no name. But its creator does - it's Joseph Mazzarino - the head writer at Sesame Street. "I Love My Hair" debuted on the Oct. 4 episode of Sesame Street and is a love letter from father to daughter. Mazzarino and his wife, Tony Nominatated actress, Kerry Butler are parents of 5-year-old, Segi, who they adopted from Ethiopia.

According to NPR, "Mazzarino says he wrote the song after noticing his daughter playing with dolls. 'She wanted to have long blond hair and straight hair, and she wanted to be able to bounce it around' he tells NPR's Melissa Block. Mazzarino says he began to get worried, but he thought it was only a problem that white parents of African-American children have. Then he realized the problem was much larger. In writing the song, he wanted to say in song what he says to his daughter: 'Your hair is great. You can put it in ponytails. You can put it in cornrows. I wish I had hair like you.'"

The video is now posted on the Sesame Street's YouTube page and the response has been overwhelming with women posting the video on their facebook pages causing the video to reach just about 350,000 views so far. 

Emmy-nominated Joseph Mazzarino has worked on Sesame Street since 1990 and was named the Head Writer in 2009. He has created and performed numerous roles on Sesame Street and in other projects both on TV and Film such as the movie The Producers and The West Wing.. As a writer in addition to Sesame Street, he has penned shows like Sesame Street Live and films such as Elmo in Grouchland (featuring Mandy Patinkin), The Muppets from Outer Space, and more. 

 



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