The reboot of the 1990s children’s cartoon Rugrats features a single, lesbian mother.
“Betty is a single mom with her own business who has twins and still has time to hang out with her friends and her community, and I think it’s just so great because examples of living your life happily and healthily as an out queer person is just such a beacon for young queer people who may not have examples of that,” said Natalie Morales, the voice actor behind Betty DeVille’s character.
“And yeah, Betty is a fictional cartoon, but even cartoons were hugely influential for me as a kid, and if I’d been watching Rugrats and seen Betty casually talking about her ex-girlfriend, I think at least a part of me would have felt like things might be OK in the future,” added Morales, who is queer.
DeVille’s character in the original series was married to a man named Howard, but it’s unclear if his character will also appear in the reboot. The couple shared twin characters named Phil and Lil.
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The reboot premiered on Thursday, with many of the original voice actors reprising their roles.
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The move to feature a gay character comes after other popular series have announced queer roles, including when Lucasfilm revealed two “trans non-binary” Jedi characters in a Star Wars comic book earlier this year.
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“In honor of #TransDayOfVisibility we’re proud to unveil an exclusive cover highlighting Terec and Ceret, trans non-binary Jedi, currently featured in Marvel’s The High Republic comic,” a Lucasfilm Instagram post read. “We support trans lives and we are passionate and committed to broadening our representation in a galaxy far far way.”
