Ms. Rachel Grew Up on Mister Rogers. Now She’s Carrying on His Legacy.
August 12, 2025 at 05:30PMMs. Rachel’s philosophy is simple: care for kids—all kids. The indefatigable media star with millions of online followers, a best-selling book, and a deal with Netflix lives the philosophy through her work. She was confused when a specific application of it—her support for kids in Gaza—invited backlash:
In May 2024, Accurso posted a video to her Instagram announcing a fundraiser: She would sell personalized “Ms. Rachel” Cameo videos for $100 each, with all money going directly to Save the Children’s Emergency Fund. The money would benefit children in conflict zones, including Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine. Accurso’s followers bought 500 videos within an hour.
Her family and friends urged her to keep the recordings short and sweet, but she couldn’t bear the thought of any child feeling disappointed. “I wanted to make each video really long and special,” she says. So she did, and soon she started losing her voice.
She hadn’t anticipated such enthusiasm—or such outrage: Comments quickly amassed on her posts and circulated across social media from people who accused her of an anti-Israel bias and of excluding Jewish children from her advocacy. Accurso had experienced backlash before: In 2023, she drew condemnation from some followers and conservative commentators after she featured nonbinary singer-songwriter Jules Hoffman on the show. But she felt particularly stunned by the criticism following her fundraiser for Save the Children.
“It broke my heart that people would be like, ‘You don’t care about Jewish kids because you did this,’” she says. “I was in a lot of pain, because I just didn’t understand. And now I am definitely speaking out, saying — if you care deeply about one group of kids, it does not mean that you don’t care about other groups of kids. That’s not fair, and it’s not right to say that.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/08/12/ms-rachel-grew-up-on-mister-rogers-now-shes-carrying-on-his-legacy/
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