President of American Girl Position Eliminated at Mattel

Mattel has just announced that the position of President/CEO of American Girl has been eliminated. Jamie Cygielman, the now-former President of American Girl, is still leading the company in her new capacity of Global Head of Dolls at Mattel, with new responsibilities including leading Barbie and other doll brands.

It's kind of sad to see this - the final knell marking American Girl not as a semi-autonomous division of Mattel anymore, but fully consolidated into the Mattel corporate machine after over twenty-five years of relative independence. Nothing much will change - after all, we've seen the slow effects of this over the last two and a half years - but it's still a sad day.