\n\t\there\u2019s a voice in Rachel Accurso<\/a>\u2019s head. Right now, it\u2019s also coming out of her tote bag \u2014 a recorded version of her alter ego\u2019s cheerful tone made tinny by canvas.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is so funny,\u201d she says, wrestling with a rainbow-colored plastic toy with her face on it, which is doing the singing in question. \u201cI was walking down the street, and it was like, \u2018Hi, friends!\u2019 I don\u2019t know how to shut it off!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIf she donned a pink headband, most people would recognize Accurso as Ms. Rachel<\/a>, a children\u2019s entertainer who started as an amateur YouTube host and has since crafted an educational universe. She has more than 20 million subscribers, a Netflix deal, a collaboration with Sesame Street, a line of toys<\/a> available at Target and Walmart, children\u2019s-book tie-ins, and an upcoming debut album, I\u2019m So Happy<\/a>, out Sept. 25. But there are two people at play here. Yes, there\u2019s Ms. Rachel, a trusted face on the internet using songs to teach tykes how to say \u201cmama,\u201d use the potty, and hop like bunnies. But there\u2019s also Accurso, a 43-year-old Christian mother of two whose conviction to speak out against violence, poverty, and disenfranchisement of children, particularly those in Gaza, has turned her life as a public figure into a melee of controversy.<\/p>\n \n\tThis duality isn\u2019t immediately obvious in the woman who greets me at her door in New York City with a bulging plastic bag of breakfast food and a wide, open smile. When the construction in the apartment next door makes itself known \u2014 clanking and paint smells seeping under the door \u2014 our morning at home swiftly turns into a picnic. \u201cLet\u2019s go down to the park,\u201d she says, soft voice carrying only a trace of the singsong intonation that keeps children rapt. \u201cIt will be beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOriginally called Songs for Littles, Accurso started the show in 2019 with her husband, Aron Accurso, a composer and musician who\u2019s worked on Broadway shows like Billy Elliot, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Aladdin. Ms. Rachel videos, which can run anywhere from 30 minutes to more than two hours, cover a wide range of deceptively simple topics, like playing hide and seek, naming farm animals, or learning how to brush your teeth. But Accurso leans heavily on her master\u2019s degree in early-childhood education, which gives the show a research-backed foundation. The nursery rhyme \u201cThe Mama Song,\u201d for example, uses exaggerated mouth movements to encourage babies to mimic the motion. \u201cIcky Sticky Bubble Gum\u201d turns a silly story about gum into a lesson about the parts of the body. The song \u201cHop Little Bunnies\u201d promotes movement and following instructions like \u201cstop,\u201d \u201cjump,\u201d and \u201cskip.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\tAccurso\u2019s show doesn\u2019t contain political material \u2014 unless lessons on friendship can be considered dangerous ideals. Nevertheless, Accurso\u2019s activism on her public-facing Ms. Rachel social media accounts has made her and her family a target of harassment, accusations, and even death threats. It\u2019s why, for safety reasons, I cannot share what neighborhood Accurso cheerfully walks me through, stopping to speak to neighbors and pet a fluffy white dog named Daisy dealing with a bout of arthritis. I cannot even describe the park where we set up camp to eat breakfast on the ground. Think being a mom is hard? Try balancing playdates and school drop-offs with security measures and constant vigilance.<\/p>\n \n\tOn her public Ms. Rachel accounts, Accurso posts anywhere from five to 10 times a day on platforms like Instagram and Threads, calling out politicians, posting fundraisers, and constantly reiterating that children in Gaza deserve the world\u2019s attention. Accurso\u2019s driving belief is that with enough time, enough photos, enough heartfelt pleas, she can change people\u2019s hearts and minds. But that fight comes with a limit \u2014 one Accurso is in the process of figuring out.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u2018You\u2019re gonna lose this partnership. You\u2019re gonna lose views.\u2019 That doesn\u2019t faze me because the kids gave me the platform. I\u2019m going to stand with them no matter what,\u201d Accurso says. \u201cPeople on the ground in Gaza are risking their lives all the time to help kids. I can do it from Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tAN IMPROMPTU OUTDOOR BREAKFAST with Accurso involves plenty of food, and what feels like even more apologies. First, Accurso apologizes for not having a picnic blanket. Then, it\u2019s napkins, though she offers pieces of paper, a handful of Ms. Rachel-themed bibs, and at one point, her own tote bag. Then she apologizes for not thinking about dietary restrictions. She\u2019s picked up what feels like every breakfast option, including yogurt, avocado toast and salad, and a fluffy omelet covered in chives. All that\u2019s missing: utensils.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\u201cOh, my gosh, we are screwed,\u201d Accurso says, laughing. \u201cWhat are we gonna do?\u201d There\u2019s a shuffle for things we could use to build makeshift forks, but it\u2019s eventually abandoned. Accurso manhandles the omelet, layering the salad on top before folding it in half. \u201cIt\u2019s an egg taco!\u201d she says gleefully. When the hand sanitizer I offer her disappears at the bottom of my bag, she waves my empty hands away with a shrug. \u201cI [don\u2019t] care,\u201d she says, ripping a thick slice of sourdough topped with avocado mash clean down the middle. \u201cI [have] a 16-month-old who eats dirt.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKids programming has always been an integral part of Accurso\u2019s life. In fact, it probably still would be even if she wasn\u2019t Ms. Rachel. No fewer than six times, she calls Fred Rogers \u2014 Mister Rogers \u2014 her \u201chero.\u201d She adores Sesame Street and children\u2019s books like Madeline. Growing up in Maine with a single mother, Accurso\u2019s great love was the theater. She and her older sister \u2014 close to three years apart \u2014 used to call themselves \u201cSisteristic\u201d when they put on living-room performances, and were constantly checking ads for community theaters. Accurso was once in a local production of Annie with Anna Kendrick; Accurso was Annie and Kendrick was a precocious voice in the orphan ensemble. (\u201cWhen she did, \u2018I love you, Miss Hannigan,\u2019 she totally stole the show,\u201d Accurso says. \u201cI told her on DM[s] the other day, and then she found the program!\u201d)<\/p>\n \n\tAccurso moved to New York in 2009. Soon after, she met Aron at a Unitarian church on the Upper East Side. \u201cIt was coffee hour at church. I was about to leave, and I said, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a cute girl.\u2019\u201d Aron says. \u201cWhen I started talking to her, I realized, \u2018What an interesting person.\u2019 Immediately I said, \u2018I\u2019ll walk you out.\u2019\u201d (Their first real date was the short-lived Broadway musical In Transit.) The duo are opposites, personality-wise. Aron tends to be quiet and straightforward. Accurso\u2019s mind and mouth run a mile a minute. When an interested squirrel moves to investigate our breakfast, she goes silent midsentence. \u201cI feel like we\u2019re not supposed to feed animals,\u201d she whispers, vocalizing the notes to Snow White\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Wishing,\u201d hand outstretched. \u201cAnd it\u2019s so hard because I want to.\u201d But the Accursos share a passion for making music.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen I was teaching public school, I asked him to make a track because there wasn\u2019t a karaoke [version] for this certain song. I thought he was just gonna sit down and [play],\u201d Accurso says, miming plunking a few solitary keys on a piano. \u201cHe was there for hours and hours, adding all these instruments to exactly match the track. I think it\u2019s cool that he [brings] the Broadway level of care and detail to kids\u2019 music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith Gaza, I couldn\u2019t not speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Accursos had their first child, Thomas, in 2018. After his first birthday, Thomas was diagnosed with a severe speech delay that required specialized therapy. It wasn\u2019t cheap \u2014 about $175 for every 45-minute weekly session \u2014 but the techniques were life-changing. After she realized Thomas remembered more when he was able to watch lessons back on video, Accurso asked her husband to give her a birthday present. \u201cI was like, \u2018I want your mouth on a video camera to say cheese or baby,\u2019\u201d she says, curling her lips and baring her teeth to enunciate the syllables. \u201cI\u2019m self-conscious about my teeth. And he\u2019s so nice, he\u2019ll do what I ask. It was [Aron] jumping in right away [that crafted] that first video.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMs. Rachel\u2019s popularity wouldn\u2019t be possible without the rapidly developing relationship newer generations have with technology. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, every year, the age at which kids are exposed to screens goes down, and the number of hours they spend in front of screens goes up. And the choices available to them extend far beyond PBS or Disney. The landscape of online children\u2019s content is cluttered with everything from multicolored fruit dancing to EDM to baby influencers, who unpack and play with mountains of toys on camera (\u00e0 la Ryan\u2019s World) for other kids\u2019 enjoyment. When the Accurso family published their first video in 2019, they offered parents an educational and low-fi alternative. In one of their first videos, \u201cBubble, Bubble Pop!,\u201d Accurso sings in front of a static underwater background for only two minutes, voice brassy without a professional microphone, before signing off with a cheerful \u201cSee you later, alligators!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe first things we filmed, we stacked books [to make a] tripod,\u201d Accurso says wistfully. \u201cI didn\u2019t care if it was crooked.\u201d There were also some technical glitches. \u201cI would record a whole show and the mic wasn\u2019t plugged in, and I\u2019d cry.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut kids were obsessed, as were adults. Parents would leave testimonials praising Ms. Rachel\u2019s videos, saying they helped their children learn new skills, or calmed crying toddlers. There\u2019s even an ongoing TikTok trend where parents play Ms. Rachel\u2019s voice and wake babies out of dead sleep. As the Covid-19 pandemic set in, and millions of Americans became trapped in their homes with no access to mommy-and-me events, toddler classes, or respite, Accurso\u2019s channel hit 1 million subscribers.<\/p>\n \n\tIF ACCURSO HAS A SUPERPOWER, it\u2019s invisibility. Groups of screaming preschoolers pass by us in the park, fists clutched tight onto their walking ropes, chubby hands waving hello or pointing to squirrels scampering in their path. \u201cHi, friends, how are you today?\u201d Accurso calls out as a group stops next to us. Not a single one seems aware that the only thing keeping them from recognizing their biggest idol is a pair of mint-green Lucite glasses and the absence of that signature headband.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\u201cNone of them seem to know I\u2019m Ms. Rachel, which is totally great,\u201d Accurso says softly, waving to the group. \u201cOnly grown-ups really do. [They] recognize me if they hear my voice. I often wear Mister Rogers socks or a Sesame Street shirt because I love children\u2019s media.\u201d That\u2019s enough to tip people off. \u201cSometimes I\u2019m not gonna wear the shirt, because I\u2019m doing something with my son and I really want to focus on him. But I love meeting people out and about.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccurso describes herself as having an overdeveloped sense of empathy. She says she feels physical pain when someone else is hurting. It\u2019s why she was struck in late 2023 when she saw videos of Palestinian children watching episodes of Ms. Rachel, often with the chaos of a humanitarian refugee camp directly behind them. As videos of the war in Gaza continued to flood in, the images stayed with her. When she saw a video of a starving baby in Gaza wearing a rainbow onesie similar to one her then-infant daughter, Susie, wore, it made her so upset she had to give the item of clothing away.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen I see a mom who has a baby who is starving and they can\u2019t get any milk, I see that and [think], \u2018What if that was me and Susie?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cWith Gaza, I couldn\u2019t not speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccurso\u2019s online presence has always been intertwined with politics. In 2020, she shared children\u2019s books about the importance of talking to kids about race, like the Ibram X. Kendi picture book Antiracist Baby. She also posted about the importance of voting in presidential elections. In 2024, she posted a video celebrating Pride Month and LGBTQ+ families (\u201cThis month and every month I celebrate you!\u201d) \u2014 prompting a boycott from political commentator Ben Shapiro. She lambasted former New York Mayor Eric Adams over proposed cuts to early-childhood education programs in the 2024 city budget. She\u2019s been vocal about the harm poverty and food insecurity can have on developing children, and is quick to condemn racism and homophobia. She remains a staunch critic of the Trump administration\u2019s family detainment practices and xenophobic rhetoric against immigrant children. And she has a demonstrated history of fundraising for kids in war-ravaged areas \u2014 including mass displacements in Sudan and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. So she was surprised when her posts about the rising Palestinian death toll were met with aggressive criticism.<\/p>\n \u201cKids deserve detailed, rich music.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen she collaborated with Palestinian war photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who has called Israel a terror state, she was accused of platforming an antisemitic voice in the movement. When she ramped up her posts about starving Palestinian children, critics said she was ignoring Israeli children targeted in the Oct. 7 attacks. In 2025, watchdog group StopAntisemitism put Accurso in the running for \u201cAnti-Semite of the Year,\u201d claiming Accurso inflated death statistics coming out of Gaza, shared \u201cHamas propaganda,\u201d and ignored the deaths of Jewish children in Israel. The group also sent a formal letter asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether Accurso was being funded by Hamas for her post. Accurso denies these claims, stating she has only shared statistics shared by verified sources, like the United Nations. Even then, some disputed their veracity. (\u201cI have to realize that people who believe the U.N. is fake \u2014 that\u2019s not people I can engage with,\u201d she says.)<\/p>\n \n\tIn January, Accurso started a firestorm when she accidentally liked an Instagram comment on her post that said \u201cFree America From the Jews.\u201d Accurso apologized \u2014 saying she hit the button by accident and removed it once followers brought it to her attention. \u201cI thought I deleted a comment and I accidentally hit \u2018like,\u2019\u201d she said in a tearful video. \u201cI\u2019m a human who makes mistakes. Everyone who knows me knows I would never like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLooking back on the last few years, Ac\u00adcurso says, \u201cI thought everyone hated me at one point. I remember calling friends and family members, Jewish and not Jewish, and just being like, \u2018Why do people hate that I don\u2019t want kids to be killed and starved?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRaffi \u2014 the famed children\u2019s per\u00adformer known for \u201cBaby Beluga\u201d and \u201cFive Little Ducks\u201d \u2014 says that Accurso\u2019s work and activism center around spreading joy and working to protect children everywhere. \u201cIn her love of the world\u2019s children, she\u2019s a person after my own heart. Her embrace of Palestinian kids is what Fred Rogers would have done,\u201d he says. \u201cRachel\u2019s courage and compassion is exemplary. I\u2019m happy we\u2019re friends.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut while close confidants have been supportive, the in-person backlash is also rampant. Last year, Accurso released a special performance of the song \u201cHop Little Bunnies\u201d with Rahaf, a then-three-year-old from Gaza who lost both her legs in an Israeli airstrike. In the clip, filmed in New York, the two sing together. Rahaf swings her prosthetics to the song, and at one point, wraps her small arms around Accurso\u2019s neck \u2014 following the song\u2019s instructions and pretending to be asleep. But when she attempted to rent out a playroom for Rahaf\u2019s visit, Accurso was turned away from multiple businesses, which cited threats and backlash.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI finally found a place that would let us come. She had the best time,\u201d Accurso says. \u201cI just was like, \u2018Let me just be in the moment with her and follow her lead.\u2019 We played and laughed so much. It was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tBut even this perpetual optimist can\u2019t hide the fact that constant scrutiny has complicated the life she imagined for her children. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change anything. Well, I would love for people to not send death threats,\u201d she says. \u201cFor a while, we had security, and they were like, \u2018Don\u2019t do anything predictable.\u2019 And it was just like, \u2018Oh, I have to think about what I\u2019m doing and fear for my family.\u2019 That was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAron has always been happy for Accurso to be the public face of their show. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful face,\u201d he says, squeezing her hand. But he had to come up with emotional strategies for dealing with the threats. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of all the work that Rachel\u2019s doing,\u201d he says. \u201cShe wants the best for all the children of the world. She genuinely cares. I know that, and she knows that. And everything else is noise.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccurso knows her content can upset people. But she doesn\u2019t see any of her advocacy \u2014 for Gaza, for Sudan, for immigrant families in the U.S. \u2014 as separate from her job as Ms. Rachel. For Accurso, being a voice for children means accepting the moral responsibility to consider their welfare from all angles. She has always said that she started her show to help people. But teaching phonics or manners or even how to say \u201cmama\u201d has an eventual victory. If Accurso wants to teach the world how to have empathy, she\u2019s got to realize it\u2019s a goal with no end in sight.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen I first started talking about Gaza, some people didn\u2019t connect. I realized I had to humanize the kids. That was what needed to happen for people to get involved,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much attacking in our world, and yelling at each other, it pains me when people don\u2019t have that experience, and so they didn\u2019t see [Palestinian children] that way. But I really believe in people\u2019s ability to learn and change.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTHE MS. RACHEL PEOPLE INTERACT with online is almost always smiling. The real Accurso? Well, she\u2019s tired.<\/p>\n \n\tI don\u2019t see the effects until a few weeks a\u00adfter our breakfast, when I meet up with Accurso and her husband at the Ms. Rachel studio, housed in a small one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. The two used to live here with their children, but now use it to film the show. The center of the living room is almost completely bare, with two chairs on one side and an upright piano pushed against the o\u00adther wall. Around it are Broadway posters like The Little Mermaid and Rogers\u2019 autograph in a frame (a gift to Accurso from Aron). To the far left is a Silver Play Button award from YouTube, a plaque gifted to creators after they reach their first 100,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tWhen Accurso enters the room and sits next to her husband, her face, although smiling, is drawn, like someone has turned down her wattage. The night before, she posted a video on Instagram about an independent U.N. Commission of Inquiry, which found Israel deliberately targeted children in the Gaza Strip, even after the October 2025 ceasefire. \u201cWhere have you been, people we look up to? You didn\u2019t want to lose your reputation or your power or your money?\u201d Accurso says in the video, holding back tears. \u201cHow can you go to sleep at night knowing you didn\u2019t say anything?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tToday, it seems the lack of sleep is weighing on Accurso. \u201cI\u2019m so excited,\u201d she says softly, sinking into a deep chair and covering her face with her hands. \u201cI\u2019m gonna take nine days off. I haven\u2019t taken a vacation in a long time.\u201d She doesn\u2019t want to share publicly where she\u2019ll be going with her family, but the last \u201cvacation\u201d was the birth of Susie, whom the couple welcomed via surrogacy in 2025. \u201cI didn\u2019t go [anywhere] when she was little.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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