Your Girl of the Year 2026 Raquel Reyes Theories

Yesterday, I turned AGDN over to you all to see what theories you have about the new Girl of the Year. I loved reading all your comments - here they are!

"Her theme is Samantha Parkington, just like how Lila’s theme was gymnastics and horseback riding and Lanie’s was the outdoors, nature, and gardening.

I’ve wrote about a few days ago, but I think some of her interests and likes would be making peppermint ice cream, baking petit fours, and ice skating. Her favorite holiday would be Valentine’s Day, her favorite color would be pink, her favorite flower would be pink roses, and her favorite book would the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She would like teddy bears, catching butterflies with a butterfly net, watercolor painting, going on cruise vacations, and the Nutcracker ballet. She is also on the pickleball team and carries a heart-shaped locket.

I really loved her heart locket logo. Maybe that’s why we did not get to see the logo earlier this year. But that would give away the hint that Raquel is connected to Samantha."

• RuthieFairyFan

"i'm excited for her but i'm also nervous!!😬i've gotten my hopes up in the past and been very disappointed so i don't know what to expect. i feel like her story and collection are either gonna be super fun and nostalgic or super boring with no thought or effort put in. still holding out hope that she's our first character from Texas--the dolphin shapes on one of her advertising materials could indicate that she lives near a beach or coastline, and Texas has a coastline along the Gulfof Mexico, which is home to bottlenose dolphins!! Galveston, Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, or South Padre Island would be good location choices for her. but knowing AG, they're probably just gonna stick somewhere in New York like Samantha and every third character😑 not that there's anything wrong with New York, but we've never had a Texas girly before and at this point, if Raquel's not from Texas, we'll never get one who is😔but that's my biggest theory for now and i hope it comes true! some people online have speculated that she may also live in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, or elsewhere on the east coast which would make sense too--wherever there's dolphins to be found. i'd really be fine with any state except New York or California!! we have too many characters there already!!

on a side note, i'm also a bit worried about her story/journal...i feel like in recent years--starting with kavi--the GOTY stories lack excitement and any sort of meaningful lesson. the stories nowadays are always "kavi failed a test and now she can't be in the talent show oh no it's the end of the world" "lila wants to do 2 different sports and her friend doesn't (this isn't even an issue?!) what ever will she do???" "summer's shocked that her cat and dog don't get along (which is completely normal...) and she doesn't have enough money to go to animal camp, her whole life is a disaster!!!" just meaningless problems that either get solved in two minutes or less or drag out waaaaay longer that they need to just to contunue the plot. whereas in the past the GOTY stories were about girls breaking their ankles! girls facing racism and almost dying in the mountains! girls' brothers nearly being m*rdered by her bullies! girls running over other girls with a zamboni! (it was only a minor part of one book but still, it's never been done again) all kinds of interesting problems that they had to work to solve and at the end, they learned an important lesson and so did the reader! even with the characters whose problems were less extreme, the authors still found a way to make their stories intriguing, inspiring, and educational. i'm not getting that vibe from GOTY books anymore. i don't even understand how they are able to take these picture-book-level non-issues and turn them into entire chapter books and say "good enough! let's sell it for $37!" my point is, i'm worried this new pattern will continue with Raquel and they will give her a generic, forgettable storyline and we'll all be disappointed. i'm REALLY hoping that her release will turn things around for the GOTY line and bring it back to what it used to be but it doesn't seem likely."

• DylliGlea