In Pixar’s Turning Red, a breakthrough on diabetes

Pixar’s “Turning Red” premiered this month on Disney+ with what looks like a fun take on adolescence; the main character turns into an adorable red panda when she gets excited. For me, though, the real stars will be two blink-and-you’ll-miss-them background characters.

That’s because they’re both wearing visible diabetes technology. One girl has an insulin pump infusion set on her arm, the other wears a continuous glucose monitor (CGM).

My son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just before he turned two. He’s had a pump since shortly after diagnosis and a CGM since age nine. He’s now 17 and this is the first time I can remember any depiction of that tech in animation. I host a diabetes podcast, so I reached out to Pixar to learn how this happened and to ask, why now?

Turns out, Susan Fong, the Dailies and Rendering Supervisor for Turning Red, lives with type 1 diabetes. Early on in production, she asked if were possible to show an insulin pump on a character. The team in the Characters and Crowds department immediately said yes.

It’s not the first time Pixar has done something like this; they have an entire division focused on representation and inclusion. Toy Story 4 featured a background character with a cochlear implant.

I asked Fong if it was tempting to push for “her” characters to have a bigger role in the movie or for diabetes to be a plot point? She said, quite the opposite.

“It’s not part of the story and I think that’s important,” Fong told me. “I know a lot of folks get frustrated by the number of questions they’re asked about diabetes. ‘Should you be eating that? What’s that thing on your arm?’ Sometimes it’s just nice to be who you are, and have it not be a part of the story.”

My son feels that way, too. Benny isn’t a big fan of “diabetes education” plot lines. For him, diabetes technology is part of who he is, but it’s not all he is.

Showing the technology in an accurate way is a bit of a breakthrough. There are too many examples of hurtful and just plain wrong representations of diabetes in media.

On The Big Bang Theory, a character makes fun of people ordering dessert, pointing out one “even had an insulin pump.” On 30 Rock, a character expects to be diagnosed with diabetes and replaces his foot with a roller skate, immediately anticipating amputation. Even media for kids joins in with thoughtless stereotypes. In Hotel Transylvania 2 a character named Kakie the Cake Monster joked “The scariest monster of all is diabetes.” (This sentence was removed for the streaming version after parents complained.)

I’m optimistic we’re seeing improvement. Netflix’s The Baby-Sitter’s Club depicts a realistic main character with type 1. ABC’s Blackish has done a good job of educating with humor around the real-life type 2 diagnosis of actor Anthony Anderson.

“It’s like we are getting better slowly, painfully, bit by bit,” says Dr. Heather Walker, the co-author of (Un)Doing Diabetes: Representation, Disability, Culture, published earlier this year. “The number of representations that we’re seeing is increasing. But are they representations that are doing good for diabetic people in society?”

Dr. Walker told me that she thinks Turning Red achieves that, especially because Pixar doesn’t assign a type of diabetes to the characters. While all people with type one need to infuse or inject insulin, many of those with type 2 and other types of diabetes must as well. You don’t need to have T1D to wear a pump or CGM.

Fong agrees, “It was extremely important to have that just be diabetes, and not necessarily about the type. We all have different pieces of technology that we need to use to manage ourselves. And this is just one of the tools.”

I asked my listeners for their take. Were they disappointed diabetes wasn’t a bigger part of the movie? On the contrary.

“As a mom of two living with T1D, I think what is best is that it doesn’t attempt to explain it but instead quietly normalizes the everyday of a school aged child living with T1D,” says Amy Ohmer. “I’m often so disappointed in quick explanations leading to inaccurate or partial statements or stereotyping. This was just the right kind of spotlight!”

Jan Allison says, “The casual representation is so refreshing. It doesn’t require pointing out or explanations. Our kids are living day to day with their diabetes and so are these characters. My child gets tired of explaining his tech and being with his friends who understand that he may beep is a relief. I love seeing kids being kids.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 10:27 AM.