AAPI Heritage Month: Representation in American Girl

May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and American Girl has been posting several posts featuring their Asian American and Pacific Islander dolls to commemorate this month. I figured today on the blog, we'd look back at American Girl's Asian representation!

The first Asian American Girl doll was one that is now highly sought after by doll collectors, as she is the only American Girl doll with her face mold. Just Like You 4 was released in 1995 and retired in 2011, and she was the only Asian American Girl doll for over a decade!

The first American Girl character doll with Asian American heritage was Jess McConnell, who was the Girl of the Year in 2006. She has mixed Scottish and Japanese heritage, and is an explorer who travels to Belize with her parents - and makes some discoveries of her own. She also debuted the Jess mold, which was the standard mold for Asian American Girl dolls for quite some time and is still in use to this day.

The first historical character with Asian American heritage, and still - to this day - the only Asian American historical character, is Ivy Ling, who was introduced in 2007 as Julie Albright's best friend from 1974. She is a gymnast who has to balance her family and her goals, and had a novel written about her, Good Luck Ivy.

Ivy was retired in 2014 with the rest of the Best Friends line, but her retirement, as well as Cecile's retirement at the same time, came with a lot of controversy among advocates for representation of people of color. After her retirement, however, a movie released about Ivy, making Ivy the first Asian American Girl doll to have her own movie.

In 2009, the first South Asian American Girl doll debuted, Sonali Matthews. Like Ivy, Sonali was a best friend to another character, that being Chrissa Maxwell, Girl of the Year 2009. Sonali, at first, was a bully to Chrissa and her friend Gwen, but saw the error of her ways and eventually became friends with the two. Sonali debuted a brand new mold, the Sonali Mold, which was the standard mold for dark-skinned American Girl dolls released in the 2010s, and to this day, Sonali is one of the rarest American Girl dolls.

Sonali was also featured in Chrissa's movie, Chrissa Stands Strong - however, it is important to note that Sonali's actress wasn't South Asian, but was Mexican instead.

2009 also finally brought new Just Like You dolls with the Jess and Sonali molds - Just Like You 30, 40, and 47. In later years, Just Like You 54, 62, 64, 67, 72, 73, 75, 76, 79, 84, and 91 were also released with these molds in the first iteration of the line. All of these dolls were retired by 2022.

After 25 years of American Girl's existence, the first Pacific Islander American Girl doll, Kanani Akina, was released as Girl of the Year 2011. Of mixed Hawaiian, Japanese, French and German descent, Kanani loves sharing her hometown of Hawaii with others, only to have to help her cousin Rachel from New York learn to love the island. Kanani was a huge hit in 2011 and was the second-fastest Girl of the Year out of the ones only available for one year to sell out before her year was over. Kanani is also rare on the secondary market.

After Kanani retired, there was no Pacific Islander dolls being sold by American Girl - up until 2017, when Nanea Mitchell was introduced. With a brand-new face mold created just for her, American Girl's first ever Pacific Islander historical character gave a different side to the World War II time period covered by American Girl since the beginning, focusing on the events and aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii. Nanea is a core part of the Historical lineup to this day.

After 8 years of there being no Asian American character dolls, Corinne Tan debuted in 2022 as the first ever Chinese American Girl of the Year, a skiier who puts herself up to the test to train a dog, Flurry. She also was the first Girl of the Year character to have divorced parents, the first Girl of the Year to have a companion doll since Chrissa in 2009 - and the first Girl of the Year since Lea in 2016 to have her very own movie. Corinne debuted with her very own face mold, and she was available until the end of 2024.

In 2022, the Truly Me line was refreshed - every doll was retired, and replaced with new ones. Truly Me dolls 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 118, 119, 120 and 124 have the 4 molds that were originally developed for AAPI characters.

In 2023, American Girl debuted its first South Asian Girl of the Year in her own right, Kavi Sharma, a theater kid of Indian heritage dreaming of her own performance after seeing a Broadway show. 2022 and 2023 was the first time 2 AAPI characters had been Girls of the Year in a row, as well as the first time 2 modern AAPI characters were available at the same time. Kavi sold out in November 2024 - notably, she sold out before Corinne did!

In 2023, American Girl started collaborating with Disney to make dolls based on their Disney Princess characters, and in late 2024, to coincide with the release of the hit movie Moana 2, American Girl released a Moana doll, based on the princess inspired by Pacific Island cultures. A wayfinder who goes on quests to save her home in the two movies about her, Moana is one of the most popular Disney Princesses, with the first movie being the most-streamed movie on Disney Plus.