UK children's show Peppa Pig has introduced a same-sex parent family for the first time in it's 18-year history.
In an episode titled Families — which aired on ABC iview on Tuesday — Peppa and her friends are talking about and drawing what their families look like.
Peppa's classmate, Penny Polar Bear, is then seen drawing a picture of her two mothers.
"I live with my mummy and my other mummy. One mummy is a doctor and one mummy cooks spaghetti," she explains.
It comes two years after a petition pushing for more LGBTQIA+ representation in the show garnered almost 25,000 signatures.
"Children watching Peppa Pig are at an impressionable age, and excluding same-sex families will teach them that only families with either a single parent or two parents of different sexes are normal," the petition says.
Micah Scott is the CEO of Minus 18, a charity that supports LGBTQIA+ youth around Australia.
"66 per cent of LGBTQIA+ young people in Australia experience harassment based upon their identity. The harassment and discrimination that LGBTQIA+ youth face leads to higher experiences of social exclusion and feeling alone," they told ABC.
"Whether a child themself is LGBTQIA+ or from a family with same-sex parents, seeing your own experience or identity in TV shows like Peppa Pig goes a long way in helping young people feel less alone."
Penny Polar Bear's mummies are not the first same-sex couple representation seen in early childhood television.
US cartoon Arthur attracted praise after a 2019 episode where the show's younger characters attend the same-sex wedding of their teacher, Mr Ratburn.
In 2004, an episode of ABC's Play School sparked controversy with a "through the windows" segment that showed a young girl going to a fun park with her two mums.
The then-Liberal government referred the episode to the ABC board with then-prime minister John Howard critiquing the segment, saying: "[It was] a very foolish thing for the ABC to do."
"I mean, this is an example of the ABC running an agenda in a children's program," Mr Howard said.
"If people want to debate that issue, do it on a program like Lateline, but not on Play School."
ABC released at statement at the time that said the passing reference to a child with two mums was in keeping with the program's philosophy to show the diversity of family types in Australia.
