The Strange Plane of American Girl Doll In-Universe Existence
- Admin
- Aug 6
- 2 min read
American Girl dolls are dolls. American Girl dolls are also characters in their own world with stories about each doll. Usually, these lines don't cross. But about ten years ago, they started to cross, with the introduction of the character Z Yang.
Z is depicted as a 13 year old filmmaker - who specializes in stop-motion animations of American Girl dolls. In the late 2000s all the way up to the early 2020s, American Girl stopmotions were a popular way for fans to express themselves and their stories. With the prevalance of short-form video content taking over (plus the bar in American Girl stopmotions being set way too high - it's not all my fault, but I apologize for making an hour-long dystopian movie with a voice cast of popular AGTubers), the American Girl stopmotion craze eventually died out, but Z represented the community at it's height, with videos of her being released in 2015 and the doll being released in 2017. While Z was eventually retired at the end of 2018, her little-known story carried major implications for American Girl. Why, you may ask? She had a Kit doll.
Then, five years after Z's introduction, it happened again. Courtney Moore released in 2020 - a girl from 1986, the year American Girl dolls were released. For Christmas, she got a Molly. The same thing happened - confirming that American Girl dolls exist as dolls in the American Girl universe.
Now, we're approaching 2026. If release patterns uphold, the new Girl of the Year, rumored to be named Raquel Reyes, will be released next month. And story leaks have rumored that Raquel will be a descendant of Samantha Parkington, the most iconic American Girl doll, thus confirming that in the American Girl universe, the dolls are real women - and dolls as well.
I guess in the American Girl universe, they made the dolls, but the dolls were based on real people instead of fictional characters like they are now.
But how would that explain the Disney and pop culture dolls? Is Barbie a real person in the American Girl universe? Is Wednesday a real person in the American Girl universe?
I don't know. Maybe I'm overthinking this.
Anyways, we're about a month away from Raquel. And I am so ready.
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I think that the they are not really in the same universe as each other. I call it the American Girl multi-verse.
I wish they had just stayed as dolls in universe tho. It felt more relatable than trying to tie them into each other's worlds weirdly. But that's just me. I'm still processing the fact that Samantha is more than likely dead in Raquel's universe. 😔
Another example of this was in Lila's book. McKenna was Lila's gymnastics coach.
I'm excited for Raquel Reyes' release and I'm curious to know what kind of connection she has to Samantha! About what you said about the American Girl universe, I agree with you that within the universe the dolls are based on real girls. But I think that the pop culture dolls are not real. All toy brands make toys of these franchise characters, like Disney. For instance, Build-a-Bear made a Disney Princess bear. So within the American Girl universe, the company is doing the same thing.
We can assume in the American Girl universe that Pleasant Rowland probably met Samantha, Molly and Kit as elderly women. And that she spoke with the direct descendants of Felicity, Addy, Kirsten, Josefina, and…
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