American Girl
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History
American Girl, also known as The American Girls Collection, is an American doll line first released by Pleasant Company in 1986. The dolls originally depict nine to eleven-year old girls from various eras in American history (collectively known as the Historical Characters, but was rebranded in 2014 as BeForever), but was expanded in 1995 to include characters in modern settings.
Pleasant Rowland, an American educator and entrepreneur, got her inspiration for the line from her visit to Colonial Williamsburg in 1984. She noticed that while fashion dolls like Barbies are popular amongst young girls, there are relatively few, if any, dolls that focus on girlhood or portray children instead of teenagers. The original dolls were manufactured by Götz during the 1980s to late 1990s, starting when Rowland bought the remaining stock of "Romina" dolls by the German doll firm to be rebadged as Edwardian-era character Samantha Parkington, complete with books detailing her story and various accessories.[1]
Two other characters were released by the Pleasant Company in 1986 alongside Parkington – Kirsten Larson, a Swedish immigrant from the 1850s, and Molly McIntire, a Scottish-American daughter of a World War II army doctor, and in the 1990s the company introduced Felicity Merriman, Addy Walker, and a line of dolls representing the modern era.[2]
In 1997, Josefina Montoya, representing 1820s New Mexico, was released, which also marked the introduction of the namesake face model shared by several other dolls including Nellie O'Malley and McKenna Brooks.
Kit Kittredge, a girl from Depression-era Cincinnati, and Kaya'aton'my, depicted as a pre-colonial Nez Perce girl from the 1760s, was released in 2000 and 2002, respectively; Kaya's debut also prompted the company to pull Merriman off their catalogues, although this was reversed in 2005 when the made-for-television film An American Girl Adventure starring Shailene Woodley was released.
The 2000s was also the time when the Girl of the Year sub-line was introduced, along with Bitty Twins, the latter of which was essentially a variant of the Bitty Baby line introduced in 1993, and the releases of Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, Best Friend characters for Historical dolls, and various other Girl of the Year characters, representing a particular state or area in the U.S.
2007 saw the debut of Nicki Fleming, the fifth Girl of the Year, and Julie Albright, a San Francisco resident from the 1970s, alongside Chinese-American Ivy Ling.
In 2008, Girl of the Year Mia St. Clair was introduced, along with Kit's best friend Ruthie Smithens, who debuted in time for the theatrical feature Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.
Samantha Parkington, one of the original dolls from the Historical line, was discontinued in 2009, with 1910s-era Rebecca Rubin taking her place. Chrissa Maxwell, the 2009 Girl of the Year, was also introduced alongside Sonali Matthews and Gwen Thompson. Maxwell's story, along with its film adaptation, depicted her struggles with bullying and making friends in school.
The 2010s marked the releases of Lanie Holland, Kanani Akina, McKenna Brooks, Saige Copeland and Isabelle Palmer (along with films based on the latter three characters' stories), Felicity, Kirsten and Molly being discontinued with their collections, and the debut of Caroline Abbott from 1810s Sackets Harbor and Marie-Grace Gardner and Cécile Rey from 1850s New Orleans.
Mattel now heads the company as Rowland sold the line to the toy giant in 1998 for $700 million.
Online Presence
Stop-Motion videos (AGSM/AGMV)
AG Stop-Motions and AG Music Videos, often abbreviated as AGSM or AGMV, are a series of user-created stop-motion videos made by fans, depicting the dolls in various stories and settings, and/or recreating popular music videos with their dolls.[3]
Photoshoots
Photoshoots are also a common pastime among fans, where they model their dolls in various poses or settings, using either point-and-shoot cameras or even DSLRs, which are uploaded on various social networking sites such as Youtube and/or Instagram.[4]
Impact
Due to its educational nature, the company and its toy line has earned praise from parents and schoolteachers alike, mostly as it is viewed as a "wholesome" and less-objectified alternative to Mattel's Barbie dolls, and as a result has won numerous awards.[5]
On the other hand it has also drawn criticism from some for the expense of the dolls[6] and their accessories, as well as for their depiction of the characters, like with Samantha being marketed as Victorian (even if she would be more accurately portrayed as an Edwardian-era girl), and more recently with American Girl giving less emphasis on the historicals in favour of the My American Girl/Girl of the Year line, to which My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series creator Lauren Faust pointed out in a Twitter post.[7]
In May 2014 the line has gained criticism for its decision to retire, or in fandom parlance, "archive", several characters from its roster. Two of them represent ethnic minorities, namely African-American Cecile Rey and Ivy Ling, a Chinese-American hailing from San Francisco. Some parents and doll collectors expressed their dismay on Facebook and other social media sites, pointing out the over-saturation of blonde characters and its overuse of the colour pink and other stereotypically "girly" colours.[8] The company however defended their move as purely a business decision, and was in no way related to racial issues.[9][10] In spite of the aforementioned statement, a petition has since been filed through the activist group 18MillionRising.org demanding the company to release an Asian-American character as a replacement for Ivy.[11]
The company's popularity has spawned numerous parodies and homages, notably in The D'oh-cial Network episode of The Simpsons, Conan[12], the MAD animated series[13], where Kit Kittredge has a daughter named Kitty who participated in a parody of Toddlers and Tiaras, and in an episode of Saturday Night Live, poking fun of Miley Cyrus' stage persona and drug references in her songs by giving her a Molly doll, alluding to the psychedelic drug MDMA.
In 2015 the American Girl fan community, more specifically the practice of creating and uploading doll-based stop motion videos, was featured in a news report for BBC News' Trending site, along with interviews and videos from several prominent doll community members, namely AGSmiless, Basilmentos and Starryeyeschick. Besides stop-motion animations and music videos set to pop songs, the report covers recurring subject matters in the said clips such as cyberbullying and other social issues, along with doll customisation, photoshoots and unboxing videos showing new and discontinued clothes, accessories and dolls from the company.[14]
In 2020 a parody advertisement by Adam the Creator attracted criticism from American Girl who took umbrage at the ad depicting a Karen character in the form of an entitled, track suit-garbed, gun-toting Walmart shopper defiantly violating the COVID-19 face mask guidelines as a "Girl of the Year" doll. The company was reportedly "disgusted" by the portrayal and use of their trade dress, and has expressed plans to press legal action against Adam.[15]
Google search trends
Footnotes
[1] GOTZ Romina, PRE-SAMANTHA Doll, 1985, NEW-IN-BOX, RA (07/11/2011)
[3] How to Take Pictures of Your American Girl Doll: 6 Steps
[4] Instagram photos for tag #americangirldoll
[6] How much does an American Girl doll really cost?
[7] Twitter / Fyre_flye: Even "American Girls" was once …
[8] American Girl defends decision to discontinue two racially diverse dolls following complaints
[9] American Girl confronts Diversity Claims
[10] American Girl Rebuts Critics After Dropping Minority Dolls – ABC News
[11] Why Is American Girl Rebranding Their Historical Line Without An Asian Doll? – Forbes
[12] Conan Visits The American Girl Store
[14] AGSM – The secret world of animated doll videos on YouTube – BBC Trending
fn15. American Girl Threatens Legal Action Against Gun-Toting 'Karen' Parody Doll
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