“When we set out to make Molly,” Gillim said, “we wanted to create an authentic portrayal of not only Alaska Natives, but Alaska.

“Changing the media industry to be one of inclusivity and authenticity for Alaska Native and Native American people has been really incredible,” she added. “It’s amazing when we look at just one episode and see pages of different indigenous people that were a part of that creation,” said Evans. The show is known for being the nation’s first widely distributed children’s program featuring an Alaska Native as the lead character.Įvans, an Alaska Native herself, specifically Ahtna Athabascan, noted that the show has over 88 different indigenous contributors, even including her nine-year-old son, the youngest of her four boys.

The show’s main character, Molly, is an Alaska Native and video blogger whose family runs a trading post in a fictional small Alaskan town. Molly of Denali ’s Executive Producer Dorothea Gillim and Creative Producer Yatibaey Evans were happy to hop on a call and answer my questions. It’s not often that I hear animated characters discussing how solar cells work, so I immediately opened my computer and emailed the creators of the show to see if they’d be willing to chat about the episode, aptly titled “Heatwave,” and their approach to messaging climate change to children. To my surprise, I overheard the characters discussing how solar panels work and how they are part of a solution to the heat wave that the show’s Alaska Native characters were facing. Later that day, my son and younger daughter were in the living room watching the PBS Kids show Molly of Denali. Was this a good opportunity to talk to him about the changing climate? I decided not to be a “Daddy Downer” and instead just joined in the fun of his imaginary battles. The yard had succumbed to the drought we’re facing in southern New England. One afternoon a couple of weeks ago, my six-year-old son was running around in our backyard, over what was once a lush mix of grass and clover but is now a crispy field of yellow-brown plant matter.

Another word for running around