Video Interview: First Day’s Julie Kalceff & Kirsty Stark

The Australian live-action series First Day, distributed and financed by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, tells the story of a 12-year-old transgender girl as she navigates beginning high school and being her true self.

In this video interview, part of the TV Kids Festival, creator Julie Kalceff and producer Kirsty Stark share how the series is breaking barriers in its representation of transgender kids and the overall importance of representation in children’s media.

“Children’s television has such an impact on kids,” Kalceff notes during the conversation. “It’s how they view the world. And if they don’t see themselves on screen, it impacts how they feel about themselves. I felt that growing up, and I think it’s important now that children see themselves on screen. They see that they’re not othered and they’re not ignored.”