Sonio Manzano's voice has the power to transport you right back to your childhood.

That is because for four decades, she was everyone's favorite neighbor. Maria

on Sesame Street, but she was also so much more. Sonia didn't just act on the show. She wrote for it,

and won 15 Emmys in the process. Now she's teaming up with PBS for a new kid show, Alma's Way.

She folded lots of her own life into Amas,

but if equal interest is where their stories diverge,

and what Sonia's journey can teach us

about the importance of using your platform

and your voice to share your truth.

It is my understanding, Sonia, that PBS needed to persuade you to create a television show.

So tell me what was the resistance.

Why did you need to be persuaded?

It wasn't that I needed to be persuaded.

It was just that I hadn't thought of getting into television after Sesame Street.

And I actually hadn't never thought of creating a children's show because, you know, after Sesame Street, the grand dam of children's television, how was I going to top that act? I had just signed a book deal with Scholastic.

But when Linda Siminski at PBS Kids asked me, I just couldn't say no because she said,

make it a Latin family. So of course, I made it like mine. And then she let me choose what the mission of the show

was as well. So I couldn't turn that down. Which I got to say as a mom myself, the idea of

critical thinking and helping kids think through problems, both is so necessary and oddly missing from the landscape.

I mean, adults want to know, is bread good for you? Is preschool good for you? Is watching television

good for you? There's no simple answer to that. Trevor Noah, the comic that's on television and commentator of society, said Americans are

uncomfortable with nuance.

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