But she might give my kids nightmares!
Eh?
One-Armed CBeebies Host ‘Scaring’ Children
Cerrie Burnell is a recent addition to the cbeebies channel, presenting the filler bits in between the programmes. She is so far from scary that I am just astounded at the comments I’ve seen around the internet - all anonymous of course, as is the way of the interweb!
"Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on Cbeebies (Cerrie Burnell) may scare the kids because of her disability?
I didn’t want to let my children watch the filler bits on the bedtime hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter’s mind and possibly caused sleep problems… and yes, this is a serious post." From one of the message boards - from an anonymous poster obviously far too scared of Cerrie to admit who he is!
Yes, Cerrie has a difference, I hesitate to call it a disability because although she is obviously different she seems to have no problems doing her job extremely well. My kids didn’t notice her difference for ages and even then they shrugged and took no notice. In fact their conversation ran a bit like: "Oh yes, you’re right, that’ll make doing (insert random task - I think they said ironing but it might have been washing up) a bit tricky." Reply from oldest - "Nah, she’ll just get her partner to do it." Not scary at all and clearly has no impact on her ability to present on cbeebies.
I’m a bit gobsmacked over the whole thing to be honest. This is a young woman making her way in the world and doing it well. She doesn’t deserve the vitriol that’s been aimed at her and makes her out to be some sort of disfigured monster.
So, what is this scary deformity that Cerrie has?
She was born missing her lower right arm and hand. Really, it’s barely noticeable. There is no nasty scarring, it’s not disfiguring and in any case it’s NOT scaring kids unless the parents are making that happen.
So, who fancies rebalancing the complaints with some letters and emails of support?
BBC, PO Box 1922, Glasgow, G2 3WT.
They have a WebForm for email too. Although it wasn’t easy to track down on their site.
Go for it, make some positive noise!
