Why exactly was April a Human-Utrom hybrid with psychic powers?

[Coola Yagami]

I guess they just really needed to keep her around. I don't think there were many, if any episodes that didn't have April in them. I think even the 2K3 turtles were allowed to have mini-arcs that didn't drag April along in any way.

It's weird cause while as a kid I had the hots for April, I also didn't feel she needed to be in every episode. News Reporter April was helpful to gather info or discover the evil plan so she could tell the Turtles, but she was pretty much a liability during actual fights. I liked that while 2K3 April was useful for hacking and whatever else, the show had enough common sense to leave her behind in stories where ninja skills and a lot of fighting were the only way out. She wasn't forced to appear in every episode.

I feel forcing April in almost every episode was just a lil bit of the 'girl power' thing, maybe they were hoping there was a female audience watching and they didn't want to disappoint if there were too many episodes without her in some way, shape or form.