The Non-Girl of the Year Contemporary Lines - A Brief History

Don't you hate it when you make the same mistake twice? Luckily for most of us, we aren't the owners of a multimillion dollar corporation. And as I sat down to think about something to blog about today, one thing stuck in my mind - the non-Girl of the Year contemporary character lines, and how they both came about as rushed attempts to add more diversity in the American Girl line.

Our story starts in 2016. This year, despite America having an African American president for eight years and increased Black representation in children's literature, not a single Girl of the Year has been African American. Ever. There have only been four dolls of color in the Girl of the Year line - five if we count 2016's Girl of the Year, Lea Clark, who is 1/8th Brazillian. Two of them are of mixed Asian and European descent, one of them was an Indian American friend doll to a white lead character, and the only main Girl of the Year with no European descent, Mexican-American Marisol Luna, was the Girl of the Year so long ago that the target audience for American Girl wasn't even alive when she was the Girl of the Year.

So when American Girl was questioned on CBS Mornings about the lack of diversity in the Girl of the Year line, they freaked the heck out.

You see, the planned Girl of the Year for the next year, Tenney Grant, was another white doll with blond hair. Just like Isabelle Palmer, who was Girl of the Year 2 years before, McKenna Brooks, who was Girl of the Year 4 years before, and Lanie Holland, who was Girl of the Year 6 years before.

This would be a bad look for American Girl. But they already invested so much in Tenney. What they were to do?

Reuse parts from Isabelle and McKenna's collections, retire a Truly Me with dark skin to be Girl of the Year 2017, Gabriela, hire 2 authors for the 3 book series instead of one, and have her be the first Girl of the Year since Kanani to not have a movie - the annual big summer event for American Girl.

Then, release Tenney - and her friend doll, Logan - the next month, release a Truly Me with a changed part and a birthmark as Z, an already established Asian American character from YouTube, and lump the already planned releases of Native Hawaiian character Nanea Mitchell and the limited return of Felicity Merriman as a "Choose Your Character" marketing campaign, and have a separate contemporary line. They even had Emory Van Zant, a hard of hearing skateboarder and cheerleader, as their next release, set to release in summer 2018.

But aside from Tenney, the rushed contemporary line was a flop. So at the middle of 2018, once the dust had settled from the "no Black Girl of the Years" controversy, Tenney, Z and Gabriela retired at the same time.

2019 came and went, and no one seemed to remember what had happened. Even in 2020, when Joss Kendrick, a hard of hearing cheerleader and surfer who had an interest in skateboarding, was the Girl of the Year, no one pointed out that this was Emory Van Zant, who's books were pulled by the same author with just weeks away from release and her items being released as the Truly Me release for summer 2018, and evidence pointing to her collection being developed since 2016, which is rare for an American Girl contemporary character.

Then, the 2020 racial injustice protests happened in the summer. And American Girl looked at their collection again. Still no Black contemporary characters currently available.

American Girl got to work on a racially diverse line of dolls, World By Us, who's storylines revolved around topics such as police brutality, racism, climate change and immigration - all hot topics, even still today. There was more work put into World By Us than the initial Contemporary Character line - a new mold was introduced, a new hair texture was made, there were actual unique designs for the dolls.

But American Girl originally had more ideas for the line than just the initial three, Makena Williams, Evette Peeters and Maritza Ochoa. Three more ethnically diverse names were trademarked, Fahari, a name commonly used for Muslim girls, Ning, a Chinese name, and Aracely, another Spanish name.

World By Us debuted in 2021 to initial fanfare - a collection with Harlem Row's fashion designers, a music video by Nickelodeon star That Girl Lay Lay, a fashion show to reveal the dolls.

But unfortunately, sales weren't what American Girl were initially expecting. American Girl gave up on marketing them. And now, most of the line has been quietly retired.

American Girl hasn't given up on diversity, which is good. For the first time in American Girl history, there are three African American dolls marketed as part of the current Historical line, Addy Walker, Melody Ellison and Claudie Wells. After World By Us's launch, we had two Asian American Girls of the Year in a row, Corinne Tan and Kavi Sharma, and another Latina Girl of the Year, Raquel Reyes - the second in a decade - is set to launch in the fall. We even have 3 Jewish American Girl dolls being sold at the same time!

But these 2 lines really show a message to American Girl - take your time. Of course we want diverse dolls! We just want them to have time put in them, whether it's creating them (where the Contemporary characters went wrong) or marketing them. Don't give up if they don't sell right away! People want these stories!