Ex-Yellow Wiggle Emma Watkins reveals new gig as Emma Memma

Emma Watkins took over from founding member Greg Page as the new Yellow Wiggle in 2012, and shocked fans when she announced in October last year that she was stepping aside. Photo / Getty Images

Less than a year after sensationally quitting The Wiggles, Emma Watkins has debuted her brand new childrens' character.

The former Yellow Wiggle, 32, shared a promotional clip to Instagram on Sunday featuring "Emma Memma", which saw her dancing around and singing while wearing a brightly-coloured orange dress with and pink shirt, and surrounded by pink flowers and butterflies.

The former Yellow Wiggle has debuted a new character, Emma Memma, to entertain children. Photo / Instagram

Watkins' new character has a focus on Auslan, the majority sign language of the Australian deaf community.

Her announcement comes ahead of an album release next month, with an accompanying TV show also in development.

The beloved children's entertainer explained to Sydney Confidential that when designing her new character, she "really wanted to keep it bright".

"Research shows that warm and bright colours are very intriguing for preschoolers," Watkins said.

"Pink has always been a part of my wardrobe but orange is such a bright and happy colour, it is not as celebrated a colour because it is not a part of the primary spectrum.

"It feels like the colour represents this new chapter moving forward and because orange is symbolic of being happy, I think that is something we love to represent."

The tagline on her debut YouTube clip reads: "Sing, dance and sign with Emma Memma."

Watkins took over from founding member Greg Page as the new Yellow Wiggle in 2012, and shocked fans when she announced in October last year that she was stepping aside. At the time, she explained that forced downtime during the Covid pandemic caused her to re-evaluate "what was important in life".

In an emotional video posted to social media, Watkins spoke about her 11-year stint with The Wiggles and said the Covid-19 pandemic had caused her to reflect on "what is important in life".

"For me, that means spending more time at home, something that I didn't realise I was missing out on being away eight months of the year on tour, but something that I have really cherished over the last 18 months," she told her fans.

"I am also really looking forward to devoting more time and energy on completing my PhD that incorporates my ongoing passion for sign language, dance and film editing and to having more time to work with the deaf community."

Speaking to Stellar in January, she said she was "really sorry" to any young fans she'd disappointed by leaving.

"I never, ever, ever – ever – want to let down the children. But I relate it to when I took time off after I had surgery for my endometriosis in 2018. I had two beautiful performers replace me on tour for a period of weeks. I felt terrible and kept thinking, how are we going to do this? But the children still came to the shows, because they love the music. That experience helped me make this decision, because everyone was okay after that," she said.

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