HOW to follow The Wiggles is the $64 million question when it comes to the Australian children's entertainment industry.
But it was never an issue Emma Watkins pondered for long when she announced in 2021 that she was hanging up her yellow skivvy.
As the first female Wiggle, Watkins undoubtedly became the Fruit Salad juggernaut's most popular character and marketable personality. Wiggles audiences across Australia were regularly full of young girls in Emma Wiggles' trademark bow and black skirt.
That popularity has transferred to Watkins' Emma Memma character, who incorporates sign language into music and dance.
The character was born out of Watkins' PhD at Sydney's Macquarie University about how to artistically integrate sign language, dance and film editing.
"It's nice so many people have adopted it," Watkins said. "Over the last two years it's really soared and it's become so busy.
"We just receive so much direct feedback from parents and educators that it's a resource they really need, because in Australia we don't have that many resources that have special communication in a specific sense."
Emma Memma's debut record won Best Children's Album at the 2023 ARIA Awards and she's done dance collaborations with Bluey character, Bingo, and created her own live stage show with husband and producer, Oliver Brian.
It's also provided a launchpad for colourful characters like Elvin Melvin, BB Butterfly and Waffles the Wombat.
"My co-performer Elvin is profoundly deaf and so he performs the whole show in sign language and dance," she said.
"Apart from Melvin and I, our dancers are using sign language as they dance and at every single Emma Memma show we have a Auslan interpreter."
At school Watkins became interested in sign language after befriending a girl who had two deaf brothers.
"Through school I didn't get an opportunity to learn Auslan until later, and when I was travelling with The Wiggles I was too busy to do the course as it was all face-to-face," she said.
"Through the pandemic they changed the course to be online and since then Auslan has had a real uptake in enrolments, as anyone can be part of it."
Emma Memma's latest show Bop & Twirl is touring nationally.
Often the best feedback Watkins receives after shows are from parents or grandparents of hearing-impaired children.
Watkins says research shows 90 per cent of deaf children in Australia are born to hearing parents, so finding a way to help the family communicate is vital.
"We're trying to offer the parents and the family network around the child those visual skills so they can integrate the child into their life," she said.
"I can't even imagine how overwhelming it would be to be a parent.
"With Emma Memma we're trying to give those parents and guardians the opportunity to learn some signs alongside their child, so that the child can be supported and have other communication with other members around them. Not just spoken language."
Emma Memma's Bop & Twirl Tour comes to Newcastle's Civic Theatre on Sunday.
