The portrayal of notions of the child varies across different forms of media, reflecting different perspectives on what it means to be a child. One prominent example of this reflection can be seen through the series Peppa Pig. With vast viewership and a global audience, Peppa Pig stands out as a global cultural phenomenon. The current research on the animated series Peppa Pig predominantly focuses on educational perspectives, leaving a research gap on the examination of the pig as a main character, through a Child Studies lens.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the anthropomorphic child characters in Peppa Pig through the notions of the child as well as the portrayal of the animal-child in the series, with particular attention to the role of the pig in this series. To achieve this, we will address two research questions 1) How are the child characters portrayed in the series Peppa Pig?and 2) How are the human-like and animal-like traits present in relation to one another within the child-characters in the series Peppa Pig? The methods visual discourse analysis I and II, combined with the coding steps from the grounded theory, enhance the discursive perspectives within our chosen Child Studies approach. These include the social construction of notions of the child, power structures in child-adult relationships and the representation of children in various cultural narratives.

The coding processes lead to the following key categories: emotional expressions, behaviour traits, family dynamics, as well as human and animal-like traits and non-anthropomorphic characters. The analysis finds that multiple notions of the child such as innocence, and children as ‘becomings’ are portrayed in Peppa Pig. The importance of the pig and the ‘pigginess’ of the main characters was shown to be the relatability and connection to the child. This contributes to the concept of Child Studies Multiple, including perspectives on notions of the child portrayed through anthropomorphism in children's programs.