April 21, 2026 • 12 mins
SMNTY reports on April O'Neil, and her role as a bridge between humanity and teenage mutant ninja turtles.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Sanny and Smitha. I hope this stuff
I never told you productive I heeart id you and
welcome to another subset of sub segment fictional women around
the world. Today, we are talking about April O'Neill from
(00:27):
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yes, because it is April, and
I think this it's climate related Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There's a lot of climate elements. Yes, I can't believe
I haven't done this one already. I think I had
this idea last April and then for some reason I
(00:48):
didn't do it, so I had to go back into
the archives and make sure. But nope, this is an original.
I did grow up with Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtles. My
older brother love that. I loved the Turtles and Time
video game. Like, if I go to an arcade, that
is the one I'm trying to find, I love that game.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh that just yeah, that brought an memory back.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Oh. I saw the live action movies and I've even
seen the recent animated ones, but the memories are very fuzzy.
So all this to say, I have a lot of familiarity,
but not a lot of specificity with this franchise, so
if you somehow don't know the teenage Mutant Ninja. Turtles
(01:34):
is a franchise fanning television, movies, games, comics, toys, costumes,
et cetera, centered on turtles in New York who became
humanoid and aware after encountering some kind of sludge, and
they grew up in the sewers under the tutelage of
a cyniate rat named Splinter. The turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo,
(01:58):
and Raphael each specialized in a different type of weapon
and combat style. They also like pizza yep obviously. Obviously,
their primary nemesis was Shredder, and April was sort of
their human foil for the most part, because I guess
she turns into a turtle. I don't remember that plot line, but.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I honestly don't remember that plot line either.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I think it was in one of the off shoes.
It wasn't anyway. She has been voiced by the likes
of Sarah, Michelle, Geller, May Whitman, and ao at a Berry. Traditionally,
she wears a very iconic yellow jumpsuit, white boots, and
she has red hair, but her earliest iteration was actually
(02:43):
a woman with darker skin and black curly hair. One
of the creators claimed that she was named after his
black girlfriend. Other versions of been Latina. She's changed a
lot throughout her depictions, and so once again we're not
going to go into every version, but just to know
she has gone through a lot of changes and one
(03:05):
of the reasons for this change into kind of the
fair skinned or a head lady. I wanted to read
this quote from a Medium article called the Importance of
April O'Neill and the Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
by Cosmo Compendium about the twenty eighteen Rise of the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to show and why it mattered
(03:28):
that April was black in it quote because these other
aprils were white, while Rise April is not. Twenty twelve,
April and other aprils being white gave the turtles a
chance to ascribe to the ideas and protections that being
white slash whiteness often has without the turtles being white.
You can find this white girl in any strange place
that a pure white woman wouldn't be or out of place,
(03:52):
and the instant first thought is to keep her safe
as to protect the white woman's fragility and innocence. Having
April being white could offer the boys a chance to
assess privileges they would never have had and have an
easier time with her because of a white supremacist institution
that protects and values whiteness and anything that is closely
(04:13):
associated with him. Making Rise April black makes her more
relatable to the Turtles and more so to the audience
and fans, many of whom have been considered as an
other by the majority of society. So I thought that
was interesting. As I said, this character has gone through
a lot of changes over time, so bear with me.
(04:34):
April first appeared in the comics in nineteen eighty four
as a computer programmer. Through her work, she realized that
the program she'd helped create was being used by the
company she worked for to drill into bank vaults. I
love that. That's such a classic eighties village. Yeah, that's
drill into begging faults. She after discovering this, she's being
(04:56):
chased by robots. She fled into the sewers, where she
meets the turn Turtles and they saved the day, and
they also help her stop the program from going forward.
Looking for a new direction, she pivoted to running an
antique shop that was later destroyed in a battle between
the Turtles and Shredder. I would not be happy. This
(05:18):
whole thing left her with nightmares, and she eventually started
a romantic relationship with Casey Jones, who was a very
vengeful vigilante type, and they raised his child from his
marriage together. I believe the child's name was Shadow. Just
to give you how emo this vibe was happening. The
vibe that was happening was then in a wild turn
(05:39):
of events, she is captured by her old boss and
injected with nanobots. But then the Turtles inject her with
their form of nanobots. But the whole thing left her sterile,
and then she became a vigilante. But it gets wilder.
Samantha this time traveler shared that April is just a
(06:01):
drawing that came to life thanks to a magic crystal.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Her father somehow jumped the shark in a way that
I didn't think could jump the shark For a thing
about teenage mutant ninja turtles, I.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Know, I'm very not what I remember at Also continue.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
This is from the comics. I think most of us
are familiar with the TV show.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I know, the cartoon, yes, and then the movie like
this Still Eyes is a part of this situation.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So this was news to me as well, Samantha. I
was reading this jaw drops, yes, but okay, Magic Crystal
brought this drawing to life. Her father drew her before
he had his non drawing daughter, but he used pin
(06:49):
instead of pencil, which meant that she stuck around. I
guess like if it'd been in pencil, she could have
been erased. Anyway, it was all so overwhelming. She moved
to Alaska for a while to cope with things, and
then she came back to New York City. So that's
(07:17):
kind of the early comic. That was her first debut. Now,
when April debuted in the nineteen eighty seven animated series,
things were different. She was a twenty eight year old,
persistent news reporter in New York City who had her
own apartment by the way, willing to take some risks
to get the story. She's a very low slane type,
(07:39):
right right, I know, yes, not the drawing that came
to life thanks to Magic Crystal. Okay. The audience is
introduced to her before the Turtles, and she is covering
a spate of violent crimes in New York and ends
up being chased by a gang into the Sewers, and
she says, this is great. I must really be onto
(08:00):
something hot if they're trying to kill me. There, she
encounters the Turtles and initially freaks out, but pretty much
accepts the Turtles and Shrine. It's like, oh okay. From here,
she becomes their human confidant and ally helping them with
their crime fighting and investigation. Since she's human but also
(08:22):
someone determined to get to the truth of things and
to get justice, she often is there a link to
the human world. In the third live action movie, listen,
if we had all the time in the world, I
would go into these live action movies. But in the
third one, April is somehow trapped in feudal Japan and
the Turtles have to go back in time to bail
(08:43):
her out. I have to say, I don't remember that.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I don't remember that. Maybe I didn't watch the third movie.
I feel like I've watched the first two and that.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Was the end.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That might have been enough. I think you too, Yeah, yeah,
we bailed on the second one. In the two and
three series, April's look totally changed and it followed. Her
story follows similar plot lines to the comics. She married Casey,
she learned some basic ninja skills, and in the twenty
(09:12):
twenty three CGI film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtle Mayhem,
she is a plus sized black girl with glasses who
wants to be a journalist but gets shy cameras are involved,
so she puked publicly and her classmates started calling her
April o'puke. Newer iterations have her as a scientist or
having psychic powers, but the core remains that she is
(09:35):
a curious, intelligent woman who is the human link for
the turtles. And you know, with a lot of these
kind of hero stories, there is that idea of othering.
The turtles feel very other. They can't they feel like
they can't leave the sewers, and she was somebody that
was there for them. She also felt kind of other too,
(09:58):
because she wanted She had all these ideas and these stories,
and she saw this injustice and wanted to do something
about it, but was being ignored. She did, i have
to say, often end up being kidnapped.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Like most yes women only in the comics, and yes.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yes, yes, but she was really loyal to the turtles,
and she protected them, she defended them. I'd say it
is a climate episode, as I mentioned, just based on
the number of chemicals she was tracking. She was always
like that, what's in the sewer?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
What is it? Things in the water? Stuff like that.
She's the researcher. She's your researcher character, but who isn't
afraid to get into the action.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I mean, let's talk about the turtles themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So you know, they were kind of like the epitome
because they I remember an episode somewhere distinctly where maybe
it was because they did a special for the planet
awareness stuff, but then being like swimming in trash with babies,
like that's something that I have memories of.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yes, yeah, I'm just saying no. I think I think
it's got a lot to say about the environment and pizza.
I mean, it's delicious. What can we say? What can
we say? It's a very successful franchise, Like the movie
that just came out made a ton of money, so
(11:27):
it still is hitting. It was a big one too.
It has a lot of big actors in it. It
was animated. But yeah, so I think we're gonna keep
seeing a lot of this in future. I don't think
it's going away, and I don't think April O'Neil is
going away. I do want to mention, depending on which
(11:49):
version you're talking about, people have very strong opinions about
her as a character. But I think she's she's got
she's got gumption, she does all yes, yeah, m hm,
and I love a yellow jumpsuit. Not many people could
pull it off. Only her, only her. Well listeners. If
(12:12):
you would like to write to us with any thoughts
about this, you can our emails hello at Stuffwenever Told
You dot com. You can also find us on Blue
Scott Momster podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
When Never Told You aws on YouTube. We have some
merchandise had Gotten Buro and we have a book you
can get wherever you get your becks. Thanks as always too,
our super duce Christina are executive Prus and your contributor Joey.
Thank you and thanks to you for listening Stuff Never
(12:33):
Told You Inspection by Heart Radio. For more podcast from
my Heart Radio, you can check out the Heart video app,
Apple podcast or where you listen to your favorite show
Hey, this is Sanny and Smitha. I hope this stuff
I never told you productive I heeart id you and
welcome to another subset of sub segment fictional women around
the world. Today, we are talking about April O'Neill from
(00:27):
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yes, because it is April, and
I think this it's climate related Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There's a lot of climate elements. Yes, I can't believe
I haven't done this one already. I think I had
this idea last April and then for some reason I
(00:48):
didn't do it, so I had to go back into
the archives and make sure. But nope, this is an original.
I did grow up with Teenage Mutan Ninja Turtles. My
older brother love that. I loved the Turtles and Time
video game. Like, if I go to an arcade, that
is the one I'm trying to find, I love that game.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh that just yeah, that brought an memory back.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Oh. I saw the live action movies and I've even
seen the recent animated ones, but the memories are very fuzzy.
So all this to say, I have a lot of familiarity,
but not a lot of specificity with this franchise, so
if you somehow don't know the teenage Mutant Ninja. Turtles
(01:34):
is a franchise fanning television, movies, games, comics, toys, costumes,
et cetera, centered on turtles in New York who became
humanoid and aware after encountering some kind of sludge, and
they grew up in the sewers under the tutelage of
a cyniate rat named Splinter. The turtles, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo,
(01:58):
and Raphael each specialized in a different type of weapon
and combat style. They also like pizza yep obviously. Obviously,
their primary nemesis was Shredder, and April was sort of
their human foil for the most part, because I guess
she turns into a turtle. I don't remember that plot line, but.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I honestly don't remember that plot line either.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I think it was in one of the off shoes.
It wasn't anyway. She has been voiced by the likes
of Sarah, Michelle, Geller, May Whitman, and ao at a Berry. Traditionally,
she wears a very iconic yellow jumpsuit, white boots, and
she has red hair, but her earliest iteration was actually
(02:43):
a woman with darker skin and black curly hair. One
of the creators claimed that she was named after his
black girlfriend. Other versions of been Latina. She's changed a
lot throughout her depictions, and so once again we're not
going to go into every version, but just to know
she has gone through a lot of changes and one
(03:05):
of the reasons for this change into kind of the
fair skinned or a head lady. I wanted to read
this quote from a Medium article called the Importance of
April O'Neill and the Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
by Cosmo Compendium about the twenty eighteen Rise of the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to show and why it mattered
(03:28):
that April was black in it quote because these other
aprils were white, while Rise April is not. Twenty twelve,
April and other aprils being white gave the turtles a
chance to ascribe to the ideas and protections that being
white slash whiteness often has without the turtles being white.
You can find this white girl in any strange place
that a pure white woman wouldn't be or out of place,
(03:52):
and the instant first thought is to keep her safe
as to protect the white woman's fragility and innocence. Having
April being white could offer the boys a chance to
assess privileges they would never have had and have an
easier time with her because of a white supremacist institution
that protects and values whiteness and anything that is closely
(04:13):
associated with him. Making Rise April black makes her more
relatable to the Turtles and more so to the audience
and fans, many of whom have been considered as an
other by the majority of society. So I thought that
was interesting. As I said, this character has gone through
a lot of changes over time, so bear with me.
(04:34):
April first appeared in the comics in nineteen eighty four
as a computer programmer. Through her work, she realized that
the program she'd helped create was being used by the
company she worked for to drill into bank vaults. I
love that. That's such a classic eighties village. Yeah, that's
drill into begging faults. She after discovering this, she's being
(04:56):
chased by robots. She fled into the sewers, where she
meets the turn Turtles and they saved the day, and
they also help her stop the program from going forward.
Looking for a new direction, she pivoted to running an
antique shop that was later destroyed in a battle between
the Turtles and Shredder. I would not be happy. This
(05:18):
whole thing left her with nightmares, and she eventually started
a romantic relationship with Casey Jones, who was a very
vengeful vigilante type, and they raised his child from his
marriage together. I believe the child's name was Shadow. Just
to give you how emo this vibe was happening. The
vibe that was happening was then in a wild turn
(05:39):
of events, she is captured by her old boss and
injected with nanobots. But then the Turtles inject her with
their form of nanobots. But the whole thing left her sterile,
and then she became a vigilante. But it gets wilder.
Samantha this time traveler shared that April is just a
(06:01):
drawing that came to life thanks to a magic crystal.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Her father somehow jumped the shark in a way that
I didn't think could jump the shark For a thing
about teenage mutant ninja turtles, I.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Know, I'm very not what I remember at Also continue.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
This is from the comics. I think most of us
are familiar with the TV show.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I know, the cartoon, yes, and then the movie like
this Still Eyes is a part of this situation.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So this was news to me as well, Samantha. I
was reading this jaw drops, yes, but okay, Magic Crystal
brought this drawing to life. Her father drew her before
he had his non drawing daughter, but he used pin
(06:49):
instead of pencil, which meant that she stuck around. I
guess like if it'd been in pencil, she could have
been erased. Anyway, it was all so overwhelming. She moved
to Alaska for a while to cope with things, and
then she came back to New York City. So that's
(07:17):
kind of the early comic. That was her first debut. Now,
when April debuted in the nineteen eighty seven animated series,
things were different. She was a twenty eight year old,
persistent news reporter in New York City who had her
own apartment by the way, willing to take some risks
to get the story. She's a very low slane type,
(07:39):
right right, I know, yes, not the drawing that came
to life thanks to Magic Crystal. Okay. The audience is
introduced to her before the Turtles, and she is covering
a spate of violent crimes in New York and ends
up being chased by a gang into the Sewers, and
she says, this is great. I must really be onto
(08:00):
something hot if they're trying to kill me. There, she
encounters the Turtles and initially freaks out, but pretty much
accepts the Turtles and Shrine. It's like, oh okay. From here,
she becomes their human confidant and ally helping them with
their crime fighting and investigation. Since she's human but also
(08:22):
someone determined to get to the truth of things and
to get justice, she often is there a link to
the human world. In the third live action movie, listen,
if we had all the time in the world, I
would go into these live action movies. But in the
third one, April is somehow trapped in feudal Japan and
the Turtles have to go back in time to bail
(08:43):
her out. I have to say, I don't remember that.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I don't remember that. Maybe I didn't watch the third movie.
I feel like I've watched the first two and that.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Was the end.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
That might have been enough. I think you too, Yeah, yeah,
we bailed on the second one. In the two and
three series, April's look totally changed and it followed. Her
story follows similar plot lines to the comics. She married Casey,
she learned some basic ninja skills, and in the twenty
(09:12):
twenty three CGI film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Turtle Mayhem,
she is a plus sized black girl with glasses who
wants to be a journalist but gets shy cameras are involved,
so she puked publicly and her classmates started calling her
April o'puke. Newer iterations have her as a scientist or
having psychic powers, but the core remains that she is
(09:35):
a curious, intelligent woman who is the human link for
the turtles. And you know, with a lot of these
kind of hero stories, there is that idea of othering.
The turtles feel very other. They can't they feel like
they can't leave the sewers, and she was somebody that
was there for them. She also felt kind of other too,
(09:58):
because she wanted She had all these ideas and these stories,
and she saw this injustice and wanted to do something
about it, but was being ignored. She did, i have
to say, often end up being kidnapped.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Like most yes women only in the comics, and yes.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yes, yes, but she was really loyal to the turtles,
and she protected them, she defended them. I'd say it
is a climate episode, as I mentioned, just based on
the number of chemicals she was tracking. She was always
like that, what's in the sewer?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:36):
What is it? Things in the water? Stuff like that.
She's the researcher. She's your researcher character, but who isn't
afraid to get into the action.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I mean, let's talk about the turtles themselves.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So you know, they were kind of like the epitome
because they I remember an episode somewhere distinctly where maybe
it was because they did a special for the planet
awareness stuff, but then being like swimming in trash with babies,
like that's something that I have memories of.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yes, yeah, I'm just saying no. I think I think
it's got a lot to say about the environment and pizza.
I mean, it's delicious. What can we say? What can
we say? It's a very successful franchise, Like the movie
that just came out made a ton of money, so
(11:27):
it still is hitting. It was a big one too.
It has a lot of big actors in it. It
was animated. But yeah, so I think we're gonna keep
seeing a lot of this in future. I don't think
it's going away, and I don't think April O'Neil is
going away. I do want to mention, depending on which
(11:49):
version you're talking about, people have very strong opinions about
her as a character. But I think she's she's got
she's got gumption, she does all yes, yeah, m hm,
and I love a yellow jumpsuit. Not many people could
pull it off. Only her, only her. Well listeners. If
(12:12):
you would like to write to us with any thoughts
about this, you can our emails hello at Stuffwenever Told
You dot com. You can also find us on Blue
Scott Momster podcast or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff
When Never Told You aws on YouTube. We have some
merchandise had Gotten Buro and we have a book you
can get wherever you get your becks. Thanks as always too,
our super duce Christina are executive Prus and your contributor Joey.
Thank you and thanks to you for listening Stuff Never
(12:33):
Told You Inspection by Heart Radio. For more podcast from
my Heart Radio, you can check out the Heart video app,
Apple podcast or where you listen to your favorite show
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