Children’s television programming not only shapes opinions and preferences, its characters can have positive or negative impacts on childhood aspiration, according to a new study.

The study is the first large-scale analysis of characters featured in science, technology, engineering, and math-related educational programming.

The study in the Journal of Children and Media reveals that of the characters appearing in STEM television programming for kids ages 3 to 6, Latinx and females are left behind.

“Animation presents such an opportunity for representation. Ideally, we’d see authentic representation—not representative stereotypes,” Aladé says. “I hope we move in a direction where kids see what scientists really look like in today’s world, where doctors, engineers, and computer scientists come from all ethnicities and genders.”

Read the full article about diversity in STEM TV by Caroline Brooks at Futurity.