Rebecca Sugar is a Jewish American animator, composer, and director – she is behind the success of the children’s TV show Steven Universe and has the title of the first woman to independently create a show for cartoon network. Her work endeavors to communicate a variety of themes that are typically left out of children’s media. In particular, she works to include a great diversity of characters and situations within her show – characters of all ages with all body types and life experiences.
She strays away from the typical means of animating women in cartoons, using instead very basic primary shapes in a variety of ways to communicate a variety of acceptable body types. She focuses very heavily on the importance of relationships – whether this is in the form of the differing types of familial connections – single-parent households, non-traditional families, and the “nuclear” family – friendships, or romantic relationships. Perhaps the most notable aspect of her work is how she strives for better representation of LGBT+ people – especially in a non-sexual way intended for children. Her work will doubtlessly affect queer children’s view of themselves in a more positive way – especially given how frequently LGBT+ people and issues are coded as “mature themes” not appropriate for children. Her work is the first step to creating a more positive means of communication with children of all backgrounds.
https://www.instagram.com/rebeccasugar/?hl=en
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/rebecca-sugar-steven-universe-lgtbq/
http://rebeccasugar.tumblr.com/