Why Are American Girl Doll Birthdays Concentrated in the Spring?

March. April. May.

Some days, I forget to make a post here. Now that I'm in college and engaging in homework, book writing, screenwriting and political work, some days, it slips my mind, even though I LOVE this blog and American Girl. But some days in the spring, when I forget, I open the blog up, and I see that a post came up automatically. Phew! I didn't really forget, right?

It was a random doll's birthday. Another March, April or May day where a doll celebrates her big day.

Some people might wonder why there are so many American Girl dolls who celebrate birthdays in the spring. The answer has to do with old American Girl history! When the historical characters first debuted, their books followed a strict formula that showcased a doll's backstory through a year and a half in her life. The first books, the Meet books, primarily took place in the summer. Learns A Lesson books took place in the fall and concerned the character starting a new school year, typically the fourth grade. Surprise books dealt with the winter holidays, Saves the Day books dealt with summer vacations, and Changes For books dealt with a big change in the winter. But the spring books? In the original formula, that was the birthday book. Happy Birthday (Character Name). And if a character's birthday was in the spring? That broke the formula.

Throughout the eighties and nineties, as well as the first year of the new millennium, the historicals largely stuck to this formula. But when Kaya debuted, the formula went out the window, as she was the first Native American character, and her life was different than the formula set out. The next two historicals who debuted in the 2000s, Julie and Rebecca, had the same formula, but with different names for their books, and despite the 3-books-for-2-girls situation that happened with Cecile and Marie-Grace, they still had spring birthdays, with Cecile's being in May and Marie-Grace's being in March.

When Caroline Abbott, the last Historical to debut with the 6-book formula debuted, a crack showed in the formula. Caroline's birthday was October 22, not in the spring like the majority of the characters that preceded her.

And when American Girl did away with the six-book format and changed the books to two-book sets in 2014? The rigidness of the birthdates went away entirely.

Sure, tradition is tradition, and most new Historicals that have debuted since 2014 have had spring birthdays. But Melody was born on New Year's Day - the first American Girl to be born in January ever. Courtney was born in February. And the last four Historicals to come out don't even celebrate their birthdays in their books - their birthdays have been revealed through social media comments by American Girl.

I hope this explains why when you go on this website in the spring months, there's a good shot of you seeing an automatic post saying that a doll is having a birthday that day - and a good shot of me not forgetting to put a post up on a busy day after all.