The Femenist Known As Clarissa

I was a child of the nineties and as a child of this decade, I had a responsibility to keep up with the programming scheduled by the children's cable station Nickelodeon. Everything from "Rocko's Moder Life" to the "Rugrats" graced my television set. This was no exception for Clarissa as she explained the femenist movement to a bunch of twelve year olds. This was never my favorite show as I assume their demographic was directed more towards younger girls rather than boys, however, her presence was noted and remembered to this day. I often link shows like "Clarissa Explains It All" to other nineties rooted children's television shows like "Doug" which I believe was also targeted to young "hipsters" of the time. Shows like "Clarissa Explains It All" should  be noted as being ground breaking television for their time. While this may not make TV Guide's 100 Best Television Shows list it should be remembered that until this show, very few positive, thinking young women were being presented in children's television. Like "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" twenty years before it, which presented a working, single female (uncommon for the time in television), "Clarissa Explains It All" was just another step in making the presence of the female with a brain a recurring role on television programming.