Disclaimer: If you don't agree with my headcanons, then that's fine. It's not that deep to me, and while I might make fanfiction based around these headcanons, you can just never interact with my site again if it is that deep to you.

Headcanon 1: Dora is an AuDHDer

    Things that I think point in that favor
  • Lack of Facial Expressions: In both DTE and DAF, Dora is shown only to smile to show general happiness or enthusiasm, or to make a more deadpan than upset looking face when she is any sort of angry or upset that isn't sad (she does frown when sad). From what I remember about the shows, she doesn't really make any other distinct facial expressions. Many autistic people have an issue using "normal-looking" facial expressions with their emotions. Deadpan(ish)ess is not the usual face expected when hearing pure anger.
  • Too Much(?) Eye Contact: Maybe I haven't talked to people enough, but I'm pretty sure it's not considered normal to stand dead silent while staring right into someone's eyes after asking them a question.
  • How tf did I forget about this?!: Dora is quite infamous for having no control over her voice volume.
  • The Gimmick of The Entire Show: Dora remembers what places are called, but not what they look like. Even after the show lost the computer game gimmick. She always repeats the place's name to herself, but never checks Map for what the place looks like until they're past the place. So she knows "The Troll Bridge" but forgets that it's a red and blue bridge. She probably even remembers that it's where the Grumpy Old Troll lives, but not how it looks.
  • Her father: Her dad (Cole) literally forgot to get three very critical ingredients to her mother's (Elena) Mother's Day cake, even though he read the recipe, and was able to remember the rest of the ingredients.

    • Headcanon 2: Emma is autistic

      Things I think point in that favor:
    • Music Obsession: Emma appears to eat, sleep, and breathe music. In her meet me video on the nick jr. website, she only talks about what instrument to practice next. And in her profile on the website talks about how everywhere she goes, she practices music. And the episodes about her all revolve around some kind of music. Hell, Emma met Dora through music. Very clearly a special interest.
    • Emma Dislikes Messy Rooms: Emma is said on the website to dislike messy rooms. She's never shown to be more neat than the other girls so this might be related to sensory sensitivities.
    • "My friends accept me as I am.": Autism symptoms are more often dismissed as quirkiness, rudeness, actual threats, or as part of the culture, rather than what they are, autism. Having friends that accept that she is not trying to anything other than herself probably means a lot more to her than us, the viewer, or even her friends think. Plus, this didn't make any sense to have on there otherwise, since I don't see any quirks about her otherwise that would strike me as an accepting friend group being incredibly valuable to her. And third, none of the other girls seem to describe being accepted in the friend group as a reason they love their friends.

    Headcanon 3: Dora is not Pan-Latina, but Costa Rican

    This is more like using the canon from Funline Animation concepts than actually being a headcanon. The Funline Animation website describes Dora as "The dark-haired, dark-eyed Dora from Costa Rica" under "Dora’s and Diego’s First Steps – Before They Could Walk, and Before They Could Talk." This means that rather than the Pan-Latina explorer we know today, she was originally concepted to be Costa Rican. I wish they had taken the route of specifically researching and portraying Costa Rican culture, because that would probably be interesting for both kids and parents to learn, in my opinion at least. The reason Dora was made Pan-Latina is so that she would appeal to Latin American audiences in general, however a Business Insider article written by Angélica Acevedo in 2019 says that Acevedo believes that to be unnecessary, a product of it's time and that the identity Acevedo assumed Dora (Acevedo assumed Dora is Mexican) had still let the Acevedo see the Acevedo's self in her. I agree with Acevedo on the point of how exploring a specific ethnicity would not have alienated me from the character, but in fact would've made me more interested in learning about a culture I've never heard of before (though I'm not Latina so I'm not exactly one to speak on this topic with). This entire ramble is just to say that in my personal headcanon, Dora is Costa Rican.