Do we like them?

Do we like Valerie Walsh Valdes?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful found and a long career making kids' TV, but little reporting exists on her personally, so it's a cautious six.

Valerie Walsh Valdes is the co-creator of Dora the Explorer, the bilingual cartoon that taught a generation of preschoolers a few words of Spanish and how to yell at a fox. She's more behind-the-scenes than famous, so there's far less goss on her than on the on-screen stars.

The show's origins are pretty modest. According to the Toledo Blade, work began in 1997, when Nick Jr. colleagues Chris Gifford and Walsh Valdes were paired up on what was essentially a homework assignment to come up with a new children's program. That assignment became a franchise that has run for a quarter of a century.

On the scandal front, there's honestly nothing to report. Searches for lawsuits, court outcomes, accusations and public rows turned up nothing about her, only a pile of other people with similar names. That's a clean sheet, though it's also partly a sign of how little press she gets.

On the harm check, we found no statements or campaigns from her on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate, harmful or otherwise. Her recent work is the Dora franchise at Nickelodeon, and nothing in what we read links her to anyone pushing harm. Absence of evidence isn't a glowing reference, but it's a clean result.

She's still going strong. For Dora's 25th anniversary in 2025, Nickelodeon rolled out a bundle of celebrations called The Great Dora Fiesta, which included a live-action feature and a new season of the rebooted animated series. NickALive lists her as an executive producer on the new version.

The good stuff is the show itself: a girl who explores, solves problems with her friends and speaks two languages was a big deal for a lot of kids. We couldn't find any charity work or awards tied to her name, so we're not going to invent any.