After Elmo's 'trauma dump' check-in, 'Sesame Street' goes all-in on mental health
Their first PSA offers a simple strategy for managing big feelings.

The Sesame Street gang is here for kids' mental well-being.
Remember when Elmo broke everyone simply by asking how people were doing on X? The viral check-in prompted a flood of responses in which people poured their hearts out onto the beloved Sesame Street character, and the wave of woes was so great all the other Sesame Street friends chimed in with their own words of support.
There's a reason Elmo's check-in hit people so hard. There's something viscerally comforting in the familiar faces and voices of our favorite childhood characters. Over 50-plus years creating high-quality shows for kids, Sesame Workshop has gained and retained people's trust and confidence, so engaging with Sesame Street characters feels safe and cathartic.
The folks behind Sesame Street have always incorporated kids' feelings and emotions into it educational programming, but a new initiative is taking a direct approach to mental health awareness. Teaming up with Huntsman Mental Health Institute, Sesame Workshop and the Ad Council have launched the "Love, Your Mind" campaign with a kid-friendly PSA.
It begins with Elmo humming a familiar tune, the "Sunny Days" theme song from Sesame Street, before his friends join in. Then Elmo explains how humming is a good strategy for managing big feelings. Watch:
It may seem simple, but Dr. Amanda Fujiki, an expert in child and adolescent psychiatry, Huntsman Mental Health Institute, tells Upworthy that humming can be "a calming experience for the brain that can give kids a pause from intense emotions and feelings."
"Humming is one of many coping activities that help kids identify and regulate emotions," says Dr. Fujiki. "Humming, deep breathing, engaging kids with their senses by listening to music, touching a cold item, like ice, or engaging in brief intense exercise, are all mindfulness based practices that can help kids take a pause to identify and regulate their emotions."
"There is research to show that mindfulness practices have positive influences for children and adults," she continues. "For example, studies show that mindful practices can reduce anxiety, depression, and improve physical health in children. By engaging in developmentally appropriate media focused on emotions, parents can offer young children opportunities to engage in dialogue where they can teach emotional literacy and validate big emotions when they come up by referencing examples, like Elmo."
The "Love, Your Mind" campaign comes at a crucial time as young people face an epidemic of mental health struggles. Feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness were rising rapidly even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Since 2020, it's been clear that we need more resources to help youth manage their mental well-being.
“The growing mental health crisis is one of the most pressing issues for parents today and children’s needs can so often be overlooked,” said Samantha Maltin, EVP, Chief Marketing & Brand Officer, Sesame Workshop. “We know that caring for a child means supporting their whole circle of care, whether that’s parents, teachers or other caregivers. We’re grateful for our partnership with the Ad Council and ‘Love, Your Mind’ campaign through which we can reach even more children and caregivers with these emotional well-being resources.”
The Ad Council announced a Mental Health Initiative in November of 2022 to unite brands, marketers, media companies and nonprofits in addressing the mental health crisis for people of all ages throughout the U.S. “We all have a role to play when it comes to supporting and destigmatizing mental health, and parents and caregivers are an important part of that equation,” said Heidi Arthur, Chief Campaign Development Officer at the Ad Council.
Parents and caregivers can find more resources to support children’s emotional well-being, from managing big feelings to coping with more acute mental health challenges, at sesame.org/mentalhealth and follow Sesame Workshop on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok for more.
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Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.