American Girl in 1999

Nicki and Isabel Hoffman, the newest Historical Characters coming on the 22nd, are rumored to be from 1999. I could be a sane blogger and look up historical events from 1999, but my last brain cell told me to be a not-so-sane blogger and post all about American Girl as a company in 1999.

In 1999, Mattel owned American Girl! The year before in 1998 was a big one for American Girl, as Pleasant Rowland sold her company to Mattel for $700 million, and the first ever American Girl store in Chicago was opened.

There were six different historical characters to choose from in 1999: Revolutionary War-era Felicity, Josefina showing life in New Mexico when it was still apart of Mexico, Swedish immigrant Kirsten, Civil War-era Addy, Edwardian-era Samantha and World War II-era Molly. Josefina was the newest historical at the time, and the second half of her collection was just released in 1998.

Truly Me was called American Girl of Today, and the meet outfit was the Red Vinyl Jumper Outfit. 20 dolls were in the line at the time, and they were all released when the line launched in 1995.

No Girl of the Year dolls were in the lineup yet. The first one was Lindsey Bergman.

Isabel is rumored to be into tennis, which is good news, because American Girl released a Tennis Outfit that year:

Also in 1999, the americangirl.com website became available for online orders for American Girl products!