oh yeah and i can’t believe it’s taken me this long to bring this up but i’m absolutely not here for people shading the “american girl today”/”my american girl” line because
the line literally enables girls to create a doll that looks like them
including a wide array of non-white skin tones and non-european features
like black dolls with curly and textured hair
or asian dolls that appear to have epicanthic folds
and they’ve also released accessories like doll-sized wheelchairs, hearing aids, and crutches so that girls who aren’t able-bodied or are hard of hearing can have a little friend who shares their experiences
and they’ve even begun to offer dolls without hair for little girls who have alopecia or have lost hair while battling cancer
and basically if you don’t think that’s the tightest shit then get out of my face
Also: SERVICE DOGS.
IT’S SO CUTE IT EVEN HAS TRAINING TREATS. You go American Girl.
They also consulted the Nez Pierce when making their Kaya doll and that’s why her smile doesn’t show teeth, among other things, and they’ve released some beautiful, and accurate, modern Powwow regalia for her.
Also they’ve been offering all this stuff since I was still getting the catalog. I just turned 29, so if I’m going to guess, that means they’ve been offering these options since at least 1996ish.
I work for American Girl (in the Los Angeles cafe as a hostess) and now they have Truly Me (the dolls you can customize) boy dolls. If your son wants to play with dolls, he can have one that looks just like him or his best friend or whatever he wants a boy to look like.
Another thing I like (and kudos to Visual) is that it’s not “here’s the girls shopping and here’s the boys playing video games”, they mix the displays so they’re all shopping and playing video games and having sleepovers.
Moreover, the historical characters have amazing books to go with them. Melody is a black girl in the 60s living through the Civil Rights Movement; Rebecca is a Jewish immigrant in 1910 New York; Nanea is a Hawaiian girl whose life is impacted by Pearl Harbor; Addy and her mother escape slavery. These books are for kids, but they do not sugarcoat the struggles and sadness of American life in various eras.
i have quite the collection of some of the more og americans girls and they are the best! i jean my only issue is that i accidentally decapitated molly while brushing her hair that one time. i eventually recapitated her so we chill. i never really got the accessories and such cuz they expensive and my mom said no BUT i do have many dolls. (let’s see, samantha, molly, josephina, nelly, bitty twins and a look like me doll. i think that it. i could be mis-remembering one.) and i read so many books. american girl is like the best thing ever.
also that puberty book? the care and keeping of you?
best. thing. ever. and i glanced at the newer one awhile back and it’s even better. than. before.
Yo I had an American Girl doll that looked like me and it was my favorite doll! I also had that very book, among others from American Girl, an they were great. They really do a wonderful job and I am happy to hear that they now make boy dolls too!
C.A. Jacobs
C.A. Jacobs 