Elinor Rabbit

> "Just follow your curiosity!"
>
> -Elinor Rabbit, Theme Song

* Normal
* Pajamas
* Shorts
* Owl
* Butterfly
* Raincoat
* Swimsuit
* Pilot
* Pre-release

**Elinor Rabbit** is a young girl who lives in Animal Town and main protagonist of Elinor Wonders Why. She is voiced by Markeda McKay.

Her mother is Ranger Rabbit, and her father is Mr. Rabbit.

## Background

According to a summer 2020 interview, Jorge Cham based Elinor Rabbit on his daughter, Elinor Cham.

## Personality

Elinor is the most curious and observant character in the series. In each episode, Elinor models the foundational practices of science inquiry and engineering design, including her amazing powers of observation and willingness to ask questions and investigate. When she encounters something she doesn’t understand, like why birds have feathers or how tiny ants build massive anthills, she just can’t let it go until she figures it out. And in discovering the answers, Elinor often learns something about nature’s ingenious inventions and how they can connect to ideas in our designed world, and what it takes to live in a community.

She loves carrots, and mentions that she loves carrot sticks but has a distaste in raisins in *Elinor Stops the Squish*. As said in *Wind in the Web*, Elinor also loves cheese. For dinner, Backyard Soup is her favorite, as stated in the eponymous episode.

## Appearance

### Body

Elinor has white fur with straight, shoulder-length black hair, a small, round, white rabbit tail, and long rabbit ears, which she has a limited degree of control over. Her ears respond to her mood, such as sticking straight up when surprised or flopping down when sad. One such occurrence is in *No Need to Shout*, when she's saddened due to the loss of her voice.

### Clothing

Elinor usually wears a purple shirt with a red skirt, said skirt having a purple stripe along the waist. At bedtime, she wears long, pink colored carrot-themed pajamas. In colder weather, thanks to her fur, Elinor doesn't usually wear a lot of extra clothes, at most wearing a red scarf and purple mittens. In *Feathers*, she wears a yellow jacket over her dress. During the soccer game at the end of *Ari's Lucky Shirt*, Elinor wears a plain purple t-shirt with red shorts. In *Owl Girl*, the costume she wore for Costume Day was an owl. Elinor also dresses in a blue butterfly costume in *Butterfly Drinks* for Insect Day.

### Pilot

During Learning From Nature Elinor's design is slightly different from the one known today. Her hair is lighter, almost gray. She can be seen smiling wider than she usually does. When she grins, her mouth shows full teeth instead of being mostly lineless. Elinor also has more pronounced paw pads on her feet. Her nose shading is also stronger than usual.

### Pre-release

Elinor's design before it was finalized has notable differences compared to her current design. Her clothes are very slightly brighter, her hair is a lighter gray and is styled slightly different, she doesn't appear to have eyebrows, her ears as well as the inside of the ears are a different shape, her nose is more triangular, her mouth is slightly wider and higher up, and she appears to be leaning forward slightly.

## Physical Traits

Being a rabbit, Elinor has no trouble hopping and jumping quickly. She easily jumps to a tree branch thrice her height up multiple times without struggle in *The Town Picnic*. She's also quite fast, as in *Look What I Can Do*, Elinor is the second fastest student participating in the running test, second only to Silas. Elinor also elects to hop around when moving instead of walking at times.

## Quotes

* "We need more observations!"
* "That is so interesting!"
* "I have a question."
* "I just love exploring!"
* "I love to ask questions!"
* "Now it's time to go exploring!"

## References

1. ↑ Age is confirmed via a leaked comic adaptation of *The Seed of an Idea*. "Hi there! I'm Elinor! I find everything interesting! I wonder if it's because I'm five."
2. ↑ 30 July 2020 https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/new-animated-stem-series-elinor-wonders-why-premieres-on-pbs-kids-september-7-2020/ “Much like my own daughter, Elinor, who inspired the series’ main character, kids everywhere love to wonder about things around them and find out the answers,” said Cham.
3. ↑ Elinor's outfit is described as such in a DIY Halloween costume guide. https://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-and-experiments/no-sew-elinor-costume "She [Elinor] almost always wears a purple shirt and a red skirt."

**Real World Scientists / Inventors:**Alexandra Horowitz • André Green • Cai Lun • Eiji Nakatsu • George de Mistral • Irene Pepperberg • Jacques Cousteau • Juan Guayasamin • Karen Washington • Louis-Sébastien Lenormand • Lydia Bourouiba • Marie Curie • Mary Anning • Richard Hill • Roseli Ocampo • Sada Mire • The Urquharts • Ynes Mexia